The Knight of Shadow
by Azrael's Wing
Summary: Ranma gets an offer he can't refuse of... from the goddess of assassins of all people. Crossover with Inuyasha going on right now, but other xovers in the future... Chapter 4 up finally!.
1. The Divine Comedy of Genma Saotome

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma½... or whatever else might end up in this fanfic that's simple enough, isn't it... ; ...and if it isn't? Well, I could mention that I bought a new set of bear traps and a shotgun for lawyer hunting; the game's a foot... XX

Dialog:"…"

Thoughts: _are like this._

Warnings: Genma and some adult themes, nothing graphic but... An entire chapter mainly from Genma's POW, not a pretty picture I think...

The Knight of Shadow

Prologue - The Divine Comedy of Genma Saotome

By: Azrael's Wing

There are those that seek to live by the virtues of whatever they believe in, those that live their lives as well as they can... and then there are those whose lives seem to be the very epitome of the sins. Some of them may openly seek it, others may be driven to it... and there are those wouldn't care less.

Name of one such individual was Genma Saotome, Master of the Saotome Anything-Goes martial arts. His life had always been constant avoidance of any responsibility, regardless of the consequences to others. Those few times when he had to face them were rare indeed, for a life in vice does not always equal stupidity, and more often it's the opposite.

Make no mistake, Genma was no genius, but there was enough intelligence and animal cunning in him to make through his life mostly unscathed. On the other hand, those few times when he was caught would then have more consequences than anticipated... for good or evil.

Some say that there are seven cardinal sins, deeds and thoughts more abhorrent to the morality than any others. If so, one could image Genma having gone through all of them, in one order or another...

Through his life, Genma's actions had not indeed been without consequences, and so our story begins with a beginning for without it there wouldn't have been anything to write of. Our story begins with a tale of...

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--- Lust ---

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_Damn it, for all the rotten luck in the world!_ Genma Saotome muttered angrily in his mind, his eyes shifting from left to right, trying to find some way out of the mess he had gotten himself into.

He was sitting in a western style chapel, guarded by numerous stone faced soon-to-be relatives and waiting to be shackled... no married to his wife to be. As much as he had tried to weasel himself out of it, it'd been of no use, for there was one thing even he couldn't lie himself out of; the growing stomach of Nodoka Kamiya that was enough proof for those surrounding him.

It really was terribly unfair... After all, it wasn't his fault that the damn woman was foolish enough to let herself get pregnant. It was just for fun, she couldn't deny enjoying it herself now could she. Sure, he had told her all about undying love and all that crap, just like he had told to countless other women before her.

_Now, just because her family was too observant for his liking, I'm forced to this... what do gaijins call it? Oh yes, 'shotgun wedding'._

As the time passed, his mood sunk lover and lover, mentally preparing him for the upcoming travesty. Finally after the long wait, the door opening and his keepers 'guided' him inside, making sure that he wouldn't have a chance to run away.

He pulled at the collar of his tux as he stepped in, the feeling hangman's noose lessening slightly because of it, or so he thought at least. Walking down the aisle, he briefly wondered why the family had chosen a western ceremony instead of a traditional one, but then he figured they'd probably put him trough all the different ceremonies that there were, just to make sure...

Finally he reached the altar, his wife to be already waiting at there. At that point his mind blocked the priest's droning, his mind still in active emergency mode. For a brief moment he considered trying to make for it but then reconsidered, seeing some of the Kamiya family members grasping handles of their katana's.

_Why do they have so many of them anyway? ...Not that he couldn't handle them. Weapon users are weak after all…_ he thought. Lying to himself had become a second nature for him by now after all. None the less, he chose not to run, his instincts once again saving his skin... if not his life.

When time finally came, he said 'yes' after few moments of uneasy silence. There were some positive points in this after all. His new wife was a beautiful woman, why else would he have gone after her, and even now he felt stirring in his groin when he thought of the night this trouble had began. He'd also have stable roof over his head, something he had missed ever since his father had kicked him out the Saotome lands because of being student of Happosai.

All in all, perhaps this wouldn't be that bad thing after all. One thing bugged his mind though... _What the hell do I know of being a father or raising a kid?_

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--- Pride ---

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As the five year old Ranma mimicked Genma's Anything-Goes stance in the dojo, the afore mentioned elder Saotome looked at his son beaming at pride for his progress. It was pride that was more directed himself though, than to the child practicing beside him, as strange as it might have been.

He had gotten the idea soon after Ranma had learned to walk, an idea that would raise his name to the annals of the martial-arts history. He was one of the two masters of the Anything-Goes, an art far superior to any other. Were he train his son in the art, make him the strongest martial artist in the world, all the world would then know his name as the greatest sensei of all time... and his son's name of course as well as his student.

The question was how to do it, for Nodoka's family wanted Ranma to be taught in their family art. If you would call weapon use an art that is. He had always believed that weapons were for weaklings, that they were useless for they could be taken away. The main reason he couldn't go openly against their wishes was just that he had a healthy respect for his wife... and her katana, nothing more. It wasn't as if he feared them or anything, not at all, but she was his wife so he wouldn't say something that'd upset her or something. That's all he told himself.

But how to get the boy away from here so that he could teach him true art instead of this rubbish Nodoka was thinking. It wouldn't be easy, for she had an unhealthy obsession with family honor, the main reason she wanted him to be tutored in their family 'art'.

If he only could use this against her in some way, use her honor to his advantage. Perhaps if he'd tell her that being coddled here in the mansion would harm the boy. Nodoka did have an obsession with manliness as well, in the way she saw it at least, and boy did he know that. It was definitely a bonus in his marriage, no doubt about that.

That might work but he'd need time to think it through. Meantime, he'd instruct his son here for their training wouldn't start until next year. The gears began turning in his head, and as he gave Ranma a particularly scathing comment about acting like a little girl when he fell down badly from a jump, his thoughts were trying to figure out how he could talk his wife over.

If he could do that, he could then make Ranma what he was supposed to be... his crowning achievement as the master of Anything-Goes martial-arts and live his days in luxury. With his promise for Soun, it was a dream he would achieve...

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--- Anger ---

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"Thrice damned boy! Putting me through all this effort just because he couldn't learn one measly art," Genma complained while bending over the form of his unconscious son.

He was in an abandoned building in the outskirts of Tokyo, a place that most would any way they could... especially in the middle of the night. His troublesome son was lying on the floor, surrounded by a circle made of chalk. Nearby was a collection of numerous esoteric... things, a collection that he was now looking through, searching for the right components.

It was really annoying to have a son as incompetent as Ranma was. For all that he had done to teach and train him; he couldn't learn the Neko-ken properly. He had tried numerous times with different foodstuffs but with no avail, in the end the ungrateful brat had just snapped and gone berserk. It had taken him days to track him down and get him back from that old woman, only to find out that he was still half crazy... snapping at anything that even reminded him of a cat.

In the end, he was forced to search for someone that would help him without too many inconvenient questions. Happily he still had some of the stuff they had stolen from the old master, and from his papers he had found name and location of an old and somewhat amoral sorcerer.

It had been surprising to find out that such a man would live in a modern city, even more surprising however had been the man himself when he had finally met him in his shady shop. The man had called himself 'The Nameless One', looking more like a corpse than a living man, and his attitude matched his appearance.

It had taken him hours of begging and pleading to make the man hear him, and even after that it had been an uphill battle. Finally, in exchange for a healthy amount of yen, the sorcerer had finally thrown him a spell book and a handful of strange objects. Saying that necessary spell would be in the book, the sorcerer had then basically thrown him out of his place, teleporting him to an abandoned house. And that brought him back to this moment...

The book indeed contained the necessary spell, called 'Curing the Diseased Mind' it seemed, but it also had other quite interesting spells as well. There were spells for bindings and mind control in it, something that sounded good a good way to contain his somewhat wayward son. The book warned that subject's overall will would be weakened as well by the effects of the spell but that fit fine with him. It would make controlling his future... err, son much easier wouldn't it?

These happy thoughts in mind he began the first chant, meant to clear his son's mind from the insanity. Unfortunately, the insanity hadn't been the only effect of the Neko-ken treatment. It was a fact that would become painfully clear to him in the future.

The first chant done, Genma soon began the second 'optional' one... soon followed by third and fourth. Thus the arcane forces began their not-so benevolent work, binding Ranma's will to his father's. Finally after nearly an hour of work, his job was finally finished and his son would be as obedient as he should. It was for his own good after all, he wouldn't wish to make his father angry... or to be a poor student.

These happy thoughts in mind, Genma opened his bedroll next to Ranma and went to sleep, eagerly waiting for his new and improved son to wake up...

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--- Greed ---

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Genma was standing in the shadows of a building when he heard the angry voices of a mob coming from behind corner. _Just on time..._ he thought and grinned.

His training Ranma in the art of thievery was progressing on schedule, the fact pleasing him almost as much as the loot Ranma would bring to him. It was an integral part of the Anything-Goes after tell. Even though he didn't go after lingerie and panties like his old master had, he still acknowledged its training... and practical values.

As it was, Ranma should be able to leave that mob behind soon enough, enabling him go to collect whatever Ranma had managed to steal. By the size of the mob it should valuable at least.

Genma really congratulated himself of using those spells on Ranma eight years ago, for they had really brought the money back later on. After them, Ranma had been eager to please him, happily taking into whatever task he might give to him. Whatever side-effects there might have been, they really hadn't bothered him, as it was him that dealt with people most of the time instead of Ranma.

Perhaps after he got the loot from Ranma, he'd find himself a whore in some other village. It had been some while since he'd last been with a woman, Ranma's training having taken much of his time recently. For that matter, perhaps it would time give his son that kind of education as well... he himself hadn't been any older at his first time. No doubt Nodoka would appreciate it as well; she'd wish her son to be manly now wouldn't she?

The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed for him. Lately they'd become too well known in towns and villages, and it seemed that shopkeepers were naturally suspicious of them these days. With their need to travel, they'd need to leave the country at this rate.

It also occurred to him that Ranma's birthday would be sometime this month, a reason for little celebration. It'd be perfect chance to give his son his gift, introducing him to certain new 'things'. After that, they would leave the country... perhaps to China. He had heard that there were some famous training grounds out there; a little change of scenery would do good for both of them.

But how would they travel? He didn't want to waste any good yen to some boat or plane tickets. _Hmm might as well swim there... It's only water after all, and it'll be good training for Ranma,_ he thought, leaving for their meeting place in the woods, money and pleasures of flesh foremost in his mind...

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--- Gluttony ---

-----------------

Genma Saotome was once again in trouble, and this he had no one else but himself to blame for it, as much as it galled him to admit it. Of course he wouldn't admit it to anyone else, as much as he might have screwed up.

This fuck up was well presented by their current form as they were lead by the guide to the so-called 'Amazon Village'. And what were those signs? A pair good sized breasts and red hair decorating his 'son' and a quite warm fur coat on his body... It was as they said in the famous Chinese curse; 'May you live interesting times', and the times ahead seemed to be indeed interesting.

Unfortunately, he couldn't see much of a fix to the situation in the future, aside from a fresh dose of warm water that is. Sadly, in the wilderness such thing isn't common, especially in the misty and cold mountain air such as they were traveling in.

Finally, after a long travel in foot, they finally reached this village of female warriors, as ridiculous idea as it may have been. It also seemed that they were in luck, for there was a festival going on and there were tables filled with all kinds of foodstuffs.

Their guide said something about them being a prize or something, but he really wouldn't care that much. He was hungry and depressed, not a nice combination, and right there in from of him was the cure for one of them... maybe both. Eating had always made him happier for some reason, he didn't know why it seemed to work that way for him... nor did it matter right now.

And besides, there was so much of it anyway... he was sure they wouldn't mind if he took a bit of... everything. But if they did mind? Well, his son... or daughter as he was right now should be able to handle things if there came any trouble.

_How much of a threat some wannabe warrior women could be after all?_ Genma-panda thought and began filling his stomach, in his bliss uncaring of what happened in the world beyond 'his' buffet.

In fact, he was so busy filling his bottomless pit that he failed to notice the conflict his hunger had created, eventually causing even further troubles to their already complicated life. Then again, he had never before cared what damage his actions had caused, why should he start by now?

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--- Envy ---

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_How could my ungrateful son hold back on me!_ was the outraged thought running through Genma's mind as he looked at Ranma's fight against Saffron.

Worried as he may have seemed, Genma had no doubt that his son could easily defeat some self-proclaimed god of the bird people. What really bothered him was that how strong Ranma had apparently become.

As much as he had dreamed of making Ranma the most powerful martial artist in world, he never had really expected his son to surpass him... the very thought was unthinkable. None the less, there he was fighting with skills and attacks that would probably force him to use the sen-ken arts if he'd end up in a real fight against him. Even worse, Ranma already knew the other half of them as well. Maybe not as well he, but he knew it none the less.

Thankfully the geas' he had cast on his son still seemed to hold, making him easy to control. He hadn't used them much lately, letting the things go on as they had in hopes of it pushing his son and Akane closer. Sometimes it seemed to work, sometimes it didn't... which was a shame really since once they'd finally get married he could relax concerning Nodoka oddities.

It should be enough even for Nodoka's demands of manliness to have boy married, hopefully even a grandchild on the way. Then he could finally relax in the luxury of her family's mansion and let Ranma handle the things...

But first he would question his son for all the techniques he knew, those Amazon ones included. It wouldn't do for a son to hold back on the father, now would it?

Then suddenly his attention was brought back to the present by a scream of death and a flash of power. He saw the crimson pieces of the so-called god fall down to as a sparkling red shower, the being now broken by whatever powers his son might have wielded.

For a moment only he felt the killing-chi in Ranma to react to him, feeling almost eager for his death. Then the feeling was suddenly gone and he saw his son go to his fiancé, fearing for the worst.

The warring emotions in Ranma face were for everyone to see, but everyone sees only what they expect or fear to see. It is the same for Genma as well, seeing his son finally admitting his love to Akane and finishing quite a few problems for himself as well.

The thought of interrogating his son was soon forgotten, buried under the apparent good news he sew now in front of him, and the momentary feeling of terror while sensing his son's chi...

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--- Sloth ---

-------------

After all the troubles in China, the things are finally back to normal... or at least as normal they ever are in Nerima. Finally a chance for him to relax, enjoy Kasumi's delicious food and a game shogi, sake and cheating with his friend Soun.

Ranma and Akane seemed to be getting along better than ever, almost never fighting it seemed. In his happiness, it didn't cross in his mind that they were rarely seen together at all. As for his son's silent meditations? A phase no doubt, he had killed for the first time after all back them... It might have had some effect on him. Perhaps he'd ask him tomorrow... or perhaps the day after, there was no real hurry now was there?

Puzzlingly though, he sometimes seemed to feel his son staring at him... the feeling bit like the one he felt at the Pheonix mountain, only much weaker. It was only that when he looked back, the feeling disappeared, almost as if it never had been there at all.

Maybe he should check some of the spells he'd cast on him, perhaps they were weakening or something. _The last time I did that was... just after we had arrived here, was it? Yes, I think it was. I told Ranma to be as blunt as possible when talking to women, in hopes of driving away all those fiancés' that might follow us behind... too bad it worked for Akane as well... Oh well, the things are working fine now so there's no need to worry,_ he though, setting the spell book he had been leafing through absently to the nearby table as he walked to the furo.

Because of that, he failed notice Ranma coming down the stairs and passing by the table, his curious eyes noticing the strange looking book on the table and then picking it up...

Author notes: Well, since some people wanted a prologue/an explanation about Genma, here it is. A little odder than I first thought maybe... I did get the fancy idea about seven deadly sins from somewhere and the text just started coming. Hope you like it . For those wondering about the name, it a tip of the (if I wore one) for Dante Alighieri who wrote The Divine Comedy and was the/one of the first to use them in fiction...

Oh yeah, The Nameless One made just one brief cameo visit here... he's far too busy in Sigil to appear much more my fics(...since I do happen play Torment while I have time ;), so this isn't going to become a Planescape: Torment crossover.

It does seem that I'm on the roll with this one as well, since this prologue came out in day and I have about three pages of Ch2 ready...

- Azrael's Wing

"I know the human being and fish can co-exist peacefully."- George W. Bush

"Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter, I'm amphibious." - Charles Shackleford, basketball player


	2. In the House of Shadow and the City of C...

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma½, A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Inu-Yasha... or whatever else might end up in this fic. That's simple enough, isn't it... ; ...and if it isn't? Well, I could mention that I bought a new set of bear traps and a shotgun for lawyer hunting; the game's a foot... XX

Dialog:"…"

Thoughts: _are like this._

Warnings: Hmm, I don't know... Wordy? Serious? A little bit of angst perhaps? It will get better though, I think this is only an overblown prologue. The better stuff is still in the future... I hope... ;

The Knight of Shadow

Chapter 1 - In the House of Shadow and City of Chaos

By: Azrael's Wing

In the realm of shadows there was discussion going on. You couldn't quite call it an argument but it wasn't really a friendly chat either. In a way it was a throwback to the time when the two current gods of shadow had been mere mortals, when instead of being the Lord of Shadow and the Assassin they'd been known as the emperor Logarth Da'igon and his royal advisor Xian il Shin'igami. Being the only one willing and able to argue with the paranoid emperor, Xian had often been the one to create the plans that Logarth would in turn try to dispute.

It had always been their way of doing things, to look the plan or the problem from both sides before taking action. A habit that had remained long after they had risen to godhood, and one that the courtiers of the empire would have recognized, even if it would happen in the realm of shadows instead of the royal chambers.

"Are you really so certain of this? We are taking a huge gamble to get a single man, no matter how promising he may be for our purposes. If we make a single mistake, the results could be problematic at very least... for both of us," a dry and masculine voice commented from the shadows, questioning a woman standing in the shifting light of their domain.

She was tall, almost 6' tall, and was dressed in a concealing black cloak, that hid nearly all of her body, showing only her head and hands. She looked to she was in her late 20's or early 30's but there was certain ageless quality in her face, making clear definitions of age almost impossible.

Seeing her face, most would have called her beautiful, were not for certain unnatural... sharpness in her features... and in her eyes. Her ice blonde hair was mostly cut short but formed bangs that fell over her face, and underneath them was pair of pale blue eyes. They were almost like chips of ice... cold, merciless and quietly mocking.

Added to this, there was something else as well, a kind of aura this woman projected. Her eyes and posture, the very presence she gave, they made her feel more like a weapon than a woman. A sheathed one perhaps, but a deadly weapon none the less.

She stood in the presence of the only being she would see as her superior, her tactics and methods being questioned, but she couldn't be less intimidated. She was Xian il Shin'igami, the patron of assassins and her lips pulled into a brief cynical smile as she answered to the disembodied voice.

"Oh Logarth, you're still the same, a god or not. Seeing enemies in every corner and threats in every move you make. You might as well come out of the shadows, you know. I'm the only around here and you really aren't impressing me with this 'dark and mysterious' look of yours. Why should you have a need to hide in your own domain anyway?" She admonished the hidden Lord of Shadows with a mocking tone, her voice almost dripping of acid.

Few moments later, the shadows nearby her seemed to ripple, revealing a form of a man dressed in regal black and with a silver coronet on his brow. He was extremely tall, 7'2'', but thin without any extra weight on his body. By the look of his face he seemed to be in his late 40's or early 50's, but he had the same ageless quality as she had.

His long silver hair ran freely over his shoulder and back and it was pulled back from his face showing his hard features. His face looked as if had been chiseled from rock, complete with all hard planes and sharp angles boulder would have. It indeed made him look more like lifeless statue than a man, something that was heavily contrasted by his gray eyes that glowed with great inner power.

The response from this man was pointed but surprisingly humorous, something his opponent wasn't clearly expecting of him. "Please, let an old man have his amusements. It's not as if you're really any better, always looking everything like it's a fight to win… or a hit to kill. Sometimes I do wonder how I managed to get a madwoman like you as my advisor. Are you certain that you didn't kill the real one and just hid the body somewhere?" Logarth finished, his mouth pulling into a slight sardonic smile.

Hearing this, Xian looked shell shocked for a brief moment, but then suddenly started laughing quietly. After getting her breath back, she once again spoke to Logarth, but this time her mouth has a genuine smile of affection upon it, tone of her voice matching it. "Logarth, I'm impressed. I didn't know that you had sense of humor anymore. I would have thought you would have had it killed at some point, but now it seems that you had some dregs of it left, hidden in some freezer no doubt," She paused for a brief moment and then continued with a more mysterious smile on her face. "And as for your quite interesting suspicions, you'll have to find about it yourself. It is a secret you know..."

Logarth just chuckled briefly at this before returning to the matter at hand, his sudden amusement disappearing behind his stone like mask. "Hmph, as if I didn't know the truth already... Anyway Xian, you're certain that we don't have any better options than this? There are reasons why the older houses don't use this method."

"For the last time, yes I'm certain of it! We don't have the resources they have, so we really don't have any other option. If we're to gain any more power to our house, we need Ascendants. Unfortunately, our world is an old one and others before us have taken or killed any that there might have been before we came to be, that and Deus' meddling of course. Our only viable option is another realm and only way to open a portal unnoticed is to use our core power. There really isn't any other choice, as much as even I'd like there to be. I'm going to supply the other half of it, remember," Xian said to Logarth, her exasperation brimming to the surface now and then during the lecture.

Logarth could only sigh at that tirade, as correct as it was. "I know I know... I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we? The only way to breach barriers unnoticed is to do it this way, probably because none of the other houses would dare to do so... and for a good reason too. We could risk our very own life force on this gamble, just in hopes avoiding the attention of Deus..." Logarth trailed off, his mind deep in thought.

After few moments of deep thoughts he finally threw his arms into air and exclaimed, "Oh hell, let's get it over with! Our Ascension… Heh, our entire domain was just a one big gamble, what's one more in this grand game of ours?"

"In the end, always the gambler," Xian said chuckling, and then continued "I think our entire Ascension was based on a game of head and tails, which I by the way won Logarth. So, let's get it as you said 'over with', and see if we can screw that bastard Deus royally in the process! Let's begin!" Xian exclaimed, while starting to channel her own energy into the 'floor' in front of her, making it pulse with an eerie blue glow.

Following Xian's lead, Logarth did the same, his hard features becoming tense due his intense concentration. Their eyes began to glow silver as their powers started to change a part of their domain into something else, taking something from them, a part of their power and what they are, and creating a conduit between them and their newborn creation.

Time passes and two deities of shadow stand where they are, only their eyes showing that something is going on. That and the intensifying glow near their feet. It's a glow that begins to form a symbol, a circle of power holding incredible strength.

This magical circle is surrounded by complicated sigils and runes, an intricate pentagram found in the center of it. Pentagram and the sigils glow with a bright blue light, giving a pulse every few second or so, making it almost seem as if it had a heart beat. In a way perhaps it did have one, its power coming straight from the life forces of the two gods that had created it.

Their creation complete, Xian and Logarth took a breather from their straining task, clearly tired of this effort. After a moment Logarth spoke to Xian once again, breaking the tired silence with his amused voice. "So, it is done and we both still live... I guess we could this success then, eh Xian?"

"I guess you would Logarth, after all you're not the one to use this thing, not that I'd let you to do so even if you'd want to. You never were known of your diplomacy, remember?" Xian comments with a biting tone at her fellow god.

You could almost see a sweat drop forming on Logarth's head, Xian's reminder bringing certain not-so-dignified memories up to his mind. "Err, let's not think about that. Anyway, how are you going make sure he accepts the deal? As excellent choice he might be, he won't be much of a use to us unless he agrees to come to us. How are you going to deal with him?"

The smile that formed on Xian's face could have only been described as impish, something that seemed to puzzle the Lord of Shadows quite a bit. After fed moments of waiting, he finally grew impatient and barked an irritated question. "Well, what is it? Spit it out already!"

At that Xian's smile only grew wider for brief moment before she answered. "Simple, I'll do something that almost no one dealing with him had ever done, something that you with your ever present paranoia couldn't even think about. I will use the sharpest and deadliest tool ever available in this kind of negotiations... I will tell him the truth!" And saying that, Xian il Shin'igami, the patron of Assassins stepped into the glowing portal and vanished, leaving gaping and spluttering Lord of Shadows behind.

Everyone has their limits, regardless of how powerful or patient they are. For some, reaching that limit may take far more time than for the others, making it seem as if their patience would have no limits. In a way, this makes them far more dangerous than those with a normal temper, for when their temper finally snaps no one knows what will happen...

It was a general agreement in Nerima, as false as it might have been, that Kasumi Tendo and Ranma Saotome were the two least likely individuals to break under any pressure. Where as Kasumi would seem as stable as bedrock under any circumstances, a quaint 'Oh my' aside, Ranma had gone through everything from simple beatings to being poisoned, cursed and being blamed for nearly everything but the fall of man without going completely psycho and butchering everyone like Hannibal Lecter on a diet.

This was clearly seen as a sign that nothing would shake this boy/girl, therefore justifying them to turn a blind eye to the more unusual happenings in the area. As unusual was seen as usual anywhere near Ranma, no one noticed a subtle change that had come over him after he returned from China. Sure, his family and 'friends' seemed to tread bit more carefully around him for a while, but soon enough things returned 'normal' in Nerima... That is, for everyone else but Ranma Saotome himself.

It was fortunate then for the general population, and for the Nerima Wrecking Crew in particular that the pigtailed wonder of Nerima would be leaving somewhere else pretty soon, taking his newly gained temper with him...

At the moment though, the boy in question was sitting cross legged at the top of the Tendo Dojo, his inner turmoil hidden by an outer calm. It was night, and cool breeze ruffled his hair as he sat there, dressed only in a black t-shirt and shorts.

A month had passed since the incident with Saffron, time that Ranma had hoped to prove his fears and suspicions false. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be so and instead they only solidified, proving them to be true and only fanning his newfound anger to greater heights.

It is hard to stay calm when you find out that you don't even know your true self anymore, that what you had once been had been made into a puppet. To be controlled so by someone else; knowing that someone had done so to him fueled his anger, even more so by the fact that this someone else had been his own father.

Then again, as much as Genma's actions had enraged Ranma, he couldn't help but to feel some amount of respect towards the old bastard and his methods. _That he managed to cast all those spells and curses on me without out messing them up is pretty impressive, as much as I hate him for them. Were not for Jyusenko and Saffron, I still might be the easily controlled fool he made of me, manipulated by everyone around me,_ he mused, trying to keep his rage contained as he thought about it.

The fight with Saffron had been quite an eye opener for him, or perhaps it had just been the catalyst, something to finish what Jyusenko had started. That something was the eradication of the control Genma had imposed on him when he was a child, and the main reason for this hell he now called life.

The strength of the Jyusenko curse had disrupted or weakened what Genma had done, and the death of Saffron had been just the last straw, enabling his mind to break free of the bondage it had been placed into.

One of the things that had been manipulated by it had been his emotions, so that he would be easier to control no doubt. Unfortunately, whatever spell it had been it wouldn't really prevent certain emotions; instead it would simply stop them behind a barrier of sorts. Like a dam, it would prevent them coming forth normally. Now though, the dam had burst and all those negative emotions were coming back with a vengeance, above them all... hate and anger.

Anger for not being in control of his own life.

Anger for always being blamed for things he had not done, for being something that he wasn't.

And hatred for those who had made his life such a hell...

The Tendo's, his fiancés, his rivals and above all, for his parents.

There were some exemptions for this though. He could understand Nabiki's actions, for the household would need money and Soun would be of no use, being the waste of space he was. He might not have liked the way she used him for money, but he understood why she did it.

Then there was Dr. Tofu, someone he had learned a lot from for all the times he'd tended in his clinic. He had given him books and scrolls to read, helping him to learn medicine and shiatsu. He was hardly a master in either of them but he knew of them now... and could learn more.

For some reason he also couldn't bring himself to hate the Kuno's, for they were insane and not responsible for what they did. Likely they were simply victims of their own parents, hardly a fault of their own.

And then of course, there was Akane...

He had loved her once, perhaps he still did have some small affection towards her, but the love had been eroded by her abuse and distrust towards him. Oh, he had not been faultless in the matter, and the regular doses of insults and his chauvinistic attitude had not helped in dealing with her. Even so, he had done but a fraction of the things she had accused him of, the explanations and apologies always falling to deaf ears.

But none the less, as much as she had hurt him in the past he couldn't make himself to hate her. Not yet at least, but as long as this life of his continued to go on as before, that could and would change eventually. And that was the root of his problem.

If the things stayed the same, and so far nothing had indicated otherwise, eventually he would crack, and that would be fatal to quite a few people around him. He freely admitted that he had more than a healthy ego, but also he also knew that ever since fighting Saffron any the others wouldn't be much of a challenge to him. It was about more than just the strength and skills between them, as important as they were. What mattered was that before he had been held back the restraints imposed by Genma, this preventing him from seeing most of the fights beyond semi-friendly spar.

Now it would be different. His mind was free of any control; he could react to attacks with any amount of force he would see needed. And more importantly, if he'd let his anger loose, that response would be harmful at best and lethal at worst. And as much as he hated most of them, he didn't want to kill them. …Yet.

But what could he do about it? The only solution he could see would be to leave Nerima. That however wouldn't be as easy as it sounds, as for all those that'd like to see him gone, there would be those that wouldn't like to let him slip loose.

Cologne, Nabiki, perhaps even Genma among others would certainly have desire and perhaps the means to trace him were he to leave unnoticed, and as long as there were all these strings tied to him, an escape would be almost impossible.

"If only there was some way to leave without a notice, to go somewhere where they couldn't follow..." he whispered into the night, fearing that changes for it would be scant in least, as much as he might wish otherwise.

Suddenly he heard a female voice whispering in his head, answering to his rhetoric question. _Perhaps that can be arranged_, I voice suddenly seemed to whisper in his mind.

Ranma couldn't quite pinpoint where the voice had come from, as the sound seemed to simply appear into his head out of nowhere. Reacting to this sudden intrusion, he quickly rose from his position and spun around, his stance ready for any sudden attacks that were known to plague him.

Scanning the nearby area for any threats, Ranma noticed a strange symbol floating in the air several feet away from him. It was a glowing blue disk with a glowing blue pentagram in the middle of it. Strange markings or letters surrounded the pentagram, blinking on and off in oddly regular pattern as he stared it, wondering whatever mess would this lead to.

He didn't have change to stare it for long, as it suddenly flashed brightly, blinding Ranma for a brief moment. As he furiously blinked of the spots in his vision, he suddenly noticed someone standing in front of him, right where the disk had been.

She was dressed in a black cloak with a hood over her head, its fabric covering all but her hands. He recognized it soon enough to be a woman, a consequence of dealing with a quite a few cross dressers... and with his own cursed nature as well. For now both of then stood still and silent, Ranma unsure of this stranger's intention, the stranger remaining silent for only god knew whatever for...

After some more moments of strained silence, Ranma's patience was finally gone and he decided to demand some answers from this intruder. "Who are you, another challenger... or a fiancé? I've had enough of both of them, so if you've got some business with me, say it so I can get it over with!" he growled at the stranger, readying himself for a fight he now expected. It seemed a logical conclusion; that she was here to challenge him as he sensed the power she radiated all around herself without much of an effort.

At first she only chuckled at the demand, the brief sound feeling somewhat chilling as it reached Ranma's ears. Then she threw back the hood, revealing her face to him, a sardonic smile decorating her lips.

She was good looking, he couldn't deny that, but there was something about her that disturbed him none the less. Her hair was pale, almost white, and behind the spiked bangs that fell from her forehead stared a pair of cold blue eyes, almost like some frozen pools of ice. Her mocking smile never wavered as they stared at each other, the silence making him feel uncomfortable in presence of this strangely cold woman. It almost felt as if he was in presence of death him... or herself. A notion Ranma tried to banish as soon as it came to his mind, as hard as it was.

Finally the woman broke the silence, her sarcastic voice cutting through the silence like knife through butter. "Heh, you really are on a hair trigger, aren't you? Try to relax a bit, I'm neither a challenger nor a fiancé, as cute as you may be," the woman commented, her tone slightly mocking to his ears. After a brief pause she continued. "In fact, I'm here to make you an offer Ranma Saotome, a chance to get out of this annoying rut of yours. Isn't that what you want, a way to leave without anyone following you, without someone to bring you back against your will?"

Hearing her words, he was naturally suspicious. There had to be a catch somewhere, something she'd want from him in exchange... and how did she know about him anyway? These suspicions in mind, he told her just that, demanding to know her true intentions and her name...

To his surprise, she didn't deny that she wanted something from this, but instead proceeded to tell all these things to him.

"Of course I want something, that's the basis of a deal... something for something isn't it? On the other hand, I think you'll find what I want quite acceptable as well," she said pausing for, and then continued with a smirk. "But where are my manners? My name is Xian il Shin'igami, of the House of Shadows, the patron Goddess of Assassins," she finished, giving Ranma a little mocking bow to top her introduction.

Ranma's reaction to his visitors nature was as to be expected, his encounter with Saffron still in fresh memory. "A Goddess!? What do you want from me? If this has something to do with Saffron..." He demanded warily.

He had little reason to doubt her words of her nature, since it did after all explain the great power he felt from her. And as for her being Goddess of assassins? For some reason to him, it didn't disturb him nearly as much as he thought it should.

Unlike he expected though, Xian didn't seem to care about Saffron at all, dismissing the demigod with a wave of a hand. "I have nothing to do with that little firebird; his demise is but a plus for you in my books. No, I'm from a... 'pantheon' not even native this realm. The House of Shadows is its name, as I said when I told you of myself."

His anxiety eased slightly, Ranma continued to question Xian, still feeling slightly edgy about his visitor's divine status. "Then what do you want from me? Your kind always seems to have some kind of rules about these deals. I don't want to mess my life any further than it already is, so tell me already," Ranma demanded from her, his tone still showing signs of healthy amount of distrust.

"Simple, we wish you to join us," was the simple answer, causing Ranma to reply with a confused, "...err, what?!" and the shell-shocked look on his face was quite amusing to Xian.

None the less, she proceeded to explain things in more detail to thoroughly shocked Ranma. "It's quite simple you know... There are numerous worlds beyond yours, all of them having their own gods and demons. In my world, we, as in myself and the Lord of the Shadow, were the first... and so far only mortals to Ascend in eons. That means to rose into godhood if you're wondering the term."

At this point she paused for a moment and let Ranma to digest what's been said, and then continued on with explaining things to him.

"Ironicly, that wasn't supposed to happen. By turning from mortal to gods, we broke the rules of certain holier-than-thou being named Deus." Xian spat the name out with scorn, clearly indicating what she thought of this being, but continued soon after.

"Deus is a being of order, and being such likes to impose such. One of his rules seems to be that he has to approve any of those who wish to rise into godhood. He likes to think himself as some kind of an overgod, but he's just someone who's got more power than others. Fortunately, since we got through a loophole he couldn't do much to us without breaking his own rules. Unfortunately though, he could prevent us becoming any stronger than we already were."

At this point Ranma interrupted Xian's speech impatiently. "I still don't see what this has to do with me... Why would you want me to join this House of yours?"

"It's because there's no one left in our world that could ascend anymore because of Deus. Ours was an oversight that was fixed soon enough. He can also prevent us to gain more power than we already have from our world, thus keeping us weak compared to those that accept his rule. Rest of the houses are quite happy with that, as it stops us from being a threat to them. Only thing left for us was to reach into other realms, and that's where you come in." Xian finished, waiting for Ranma's reaction.

"You want me to become a god... so that you can become stronger? How does that really work? Sounds a bit fishy to me..." Suspicious and quite puzzled Ranma asked from Xian.

"There's strength in numbers, even more so when you're deity. In a way, a house... or a pantheon if you will pools their strength together, becoming more than sum of their parts. Also, it doesn't hurt that you'd open us a new world to draw power from..." Xian mused.

"Then again, I really can't outright make you a god. I can only give you the means; you'll have to do the rest yourself."

During this speech Ranma had slowly began to loose his uneasiness with Xian. Her... openness concerning their situation was strangely making him trust her more. It was rare that someone would be open of their motives for him; in fact it was almost unheard of. This Goddess of Assassins openly admitted that they needed him, that in exchange for him joining them he would gain what he wanted... but how, he'd need to find that out before he'd make his decision.

"All right, let's say I'm interested. How is this going to work? Do I have to kill someone or something, you being the patron of Assassin and all...?" Ranma asks worriedly. Even though he had killed Saffron, he didn't really look forward to kill anyone else unless it was really necessary. The thing just was, if he didn't get out of here, he'd end up killing someone anyways... someone he'd know in fact. It was a no win situation and Ranma saw now a way out of it, and however bloody it might be, he would take it.

"Hmm? No, nothing like that. You should we capable of killing though, as we're not exactly light gods, you know. Anyway, it goes like this... I can't make you a god just like that, but I can make you an Ascendant though. It's kind of like a being a demigod, but you wouldn't get any real extra powers from it, just your basic immortality.

"Basic immortality?"

"Basically, you'd be immune to ageing, that's all. I'd would be your job to gather enough power, be it Ki, Chi, Magic, Divine or otherwise to enable me to complete the Ascension. Well, it does remove any plateaus that you might reach, enabling you to gather the necessary powers without any limiters. The chance for you to do this gathering would also be your escape by the way..."

At this point Ranma really perked up, eagerly demanding to know more. "How? How would it help me? There are always those that can find me. I'd need some way to escape and hide from them," he pointed out, hoping her to give him some solution to this problem.

"It's quite simple really... time. I will use what's left of my powers reserved for this mission of mine to make you a portal trough time. As time runs differently in our realms, one year for me would be 360 for you; about as many days as in your year isn't it? You'd use that time in the past to gather power and when you'd reach the time you left, we would deal with your Ascension. Simple enough for you?" Xian finished, smirking at the hopeful looking Ranma.

"But isn't there a threat of a paraldo, parapto... err something like that..." Ranma wondered aloud, trying to recall the strange word he had heard in class.

"Paradox? That's up to you; this isn't my world after all. As long as you survive its fine with me, so don't go killing your dad as kid or having sex with your mother. In fact further back that your grandparents, the time can handle itself but after that point it gets complicated." Xian said with a serious tone of voice.

"I see..."

"Anyway, do we have a deal?" Xian asked somewhat impatiently.

Ranma knew that this was the turning point, and for once it was his choice, no one else was controlling him here. Not his father, not his mother, not even the Tendo's or his rivals. He could accept the deal and see what would happen, or continue living this life of his like before. It really wasn't a choice when he thought of it... There was a one last thing he had to ask though; before choosing his fate.

"What about my curse? Would it be cured of it or something?" He asked from her, curious of the answer, for it was one of those things that had disturbed him greatly in the past.

"Which one, the Jyusenko or Neko-ken? I think that with enough time and power you could at least control it if not cure the Jyusenko curse. Honestly though, I think it's too ingrained into your soul by now to be removed without killing you." Xian says, waiting for his reaction for the mixed news.

"Oh... I guess I can live with that," was Ranma's quiet response, and that was in fact the truth. He had truly grown accustomed to it through all this time, only randomness of it giving him trouble constantly. He could live with his girl half as long as he could control it. A thought that would make Genma roll in his grave, if he only was in a one... Hmm, what a pleasant thought.

"And as for the Neko-ken? That's entirely up to you, 'cause in three and a half century you should be able to find some cure to it..." Xian said slightly mockingly.

A bit annoyed at the tone, Ranma none the less took the advice on face value. He still has his ego, he was Ranma Saotome after all, and given the time and freedom he would have, he should be able to do just what she said.

Seeing the determination on his face, Xian reached the right conclusion and said,"I guess we have a deal then," with a slight smile gracing her lips.

"Yeah, I guess we do... oh, could I have time to get some stuff of mine with me? Before you make that portal of yours?" Ranma asked.

"Fine, be here in one hour. We'll finish things then." Xian responded, having expected the request and turned invisible to wait for Ranma's return.

Not wasting any time, he left the roof to pick up some things of his... and some things that were not his, but would be useful in this 'training trip'. Wrapping himself into the Umi-sen-ken chi-cloak he quickly roofhoped to Nekohanten, some creative 'shoplifting' in mind. Hoping the old ghoul to be a heavy sleeper, for he had no interest to face her so close to escape, he slipped in. None the less, she had some things that would be useful for his trip, if he only could get them from her.

Thankfully Genma had been a good teacher in many things, as horrid individual he might have been otherwise, and Ranma's thieving skills were quite good. As little as he liked to use them, he saw that they had their own uses from time to time, like getting the Amazon secret techniques from the elder right now.

This in mind, he sneaked through the building, carefully avoiding Mousse's cage in the kitchen and steering way clear of Shampoo's room. Finally reaching Cologne's chambers, he still kept the cloak on, wishing to make certain he'd remain undetected through this incursion.

There, behind a loose board under her bed was the box. Thinking for a moment, he took it with him, deciding to open it later on. Who knew what kind of traps there might be in it. He'd have time to deal with it after he got away from all of this.

Leaving as silently as he came, he returned to the Tendo's, one more act of thievery in his mind. In the house, he made his way to Genma's room, the goal firmly in mind. For all the hell Genma had put him through, he would deserve some kind of payment. If he couldn't take it in flesh and blood, then the Saotome secret techniques would do in exchange. He might know them in part already, but he would master them with the scrolls in his possession.

When in Genma's room, he searched it for the scrolls, wondering where the bastard has hidden them. Finally he had to resort to his chi-senses to find them, proving that his... father was not a complete moron after all. In the end he finally found them in Genma's backpack, hidden under a fixed Umi-sen-ken cloak in a corner of the room. It was an ingenious idea, perfectly suited for hiding stolen loot, so it was no wonder Genma would had thought of it. No doubt the secret of it could be also found within the scrolls...

Without wasting anymore time, he looked through Genma's possessions, searching for whatever might be useful to him. He found the sen-ken-scrolls, several more of them than Genma had even hinted on, and some others as well... like a familiar leather bound tome. Perhaps stolen from Happosai or some temple while they were on the road, he didn't know, but he took all of them with him as well, hoping them to be of some use as well in the future... or the past as it will soon be.

Finally he returned to his own room for his meager possessions. There was not that much really. His camping kit and some books from Tofu, some tokens and keepsakes from his training trip with Genma, an extra set of clothes and some food from the kitchen on the way... and finally his mother's katana.

Whereas he wished to have nothing to do with Genma anymore, his mother was a slightly different matter. Genma had no honor, but her mother had almost too much of it. He didn't know what might have caused it to go to the direction it had, with her rigid demands of manliness and such. Perhaps it had something to do with her childhood, he didn't know, but it was something his own life seemed to hang upon these days.

When he'd return, he'd take time to deal with this with her mother, to see if he could reason with her at all. For all that had happened to him, he didn't really thin he'd wish to become an orphan. But if not... well, there was no need to think of that now. That was indeed something for the future...

All that's needed finally gathered, he returned to the top of the dojo, well prepared for his journey ahead. Finding the spot where he had spoken with Xian, he spoke to the air,"Are you around here somewhere Xian? I'm ready!"

At that, the air shimmered slightly nearby him, revealing the cloaked form of the Goddess. "So, everything's in order? Good, let's get it on then," and then put her hand on Ranma's face, covering his right cheek with it.

From the corner of his eye Ranma could see strange shadowy glow covering the hand, the shadow slowly seeping into him through the touch doing only god... or goddess knew what. Soon he began to feel a strange tingling feeling at his cheek, slowly intensifying until he almost felt almost unbearable need to scratch it. Then, in an instant, the strange feeling disappeared and Xian pulled her hand back, apparently examining her handiwork.

"How... fitting," seemed to be her only comment, almost making Ranma to demand what's going on.

Anticipating that, Xian pulled a simple mirror out of her sleeve and pointed it at Ranma. Looking into it, he soon realized what has changed. Where the Goddess had held her hand, there now was what seemed to a tattoo. It was pure black, showing a stylized silhouette of a horse, the kind of like a knight in a chess game.

"What is it?" he asked, puzzled by its appearance.

"What do you think? It's your mark of Ascendant, different for every Ascendant. It's supposed to reflect on the personality and nature of the one that wears it," Xian answered and then continued, "I guess that means that you're going to be the knight of Shadow then, eh? I guess we're going to need one if we're going to go against Deus eventually," she mused.

"I can also contact you through it, but not often since the distances are somewhat large between us... in reality and time both, so do try to use it only if necessary. Anyway, let's now get you where you should be," Xian said, opening the blue portal once again with a wave of her hand.

Steeling himself, Ranma walked towards the glowing disk, by now feeling the raw power radiating from it. Pausing for a moment at the edge, he made himself to take the final step and walked onto the glowing sigil. For a moment nothing happened but then everything seemed to turn bright blue. Just as he started to ask, "What the..." he disappeared from the top of the dojo, as if he never were there at all.

Seeing that her job was done; Xian il Shin'igami. the Goddess of assassins disappeared as well, leaving Nerima behind as a strangely emptier place. The nexus of the chaos was gone for now, in temporal sense at least, but as time flows things return. Can the inhabitants of Nerima accept what will come back though, now that is a different thing entirely...?

In the middle of the forest there was a flash of blue light, and suddenly where there was nothing before stood the form Ranma Saotome. Taking a cautious look around he saw that he was clearly somewhere out of civilization, a fact that suited him more than well.

"I guess I should go and make myself a camp, then find out where I am... Well, I do have all the time in a world," he chuckled and then began his journey…

TBC...

Author notes: Well, here I go again... --; another start for a new fic, but I think this will be last new one for while though. That's the problem imagination, it doesn't work when and how you want it to do. Anyway, as I said there will be action in the next chapter, probably even hints of the current crossover series. Then again, there aren't that many possibilities are there? Oh yeah, some of the ideas of the gods and houses are ripped from the books of Malazan the Fallen, by Steven Erikson. Great fantasy books and all credit to him for the ideas... Not that I won't modify them to my own directions.

For the next chapter though... My priority seems to be Circle of Blood at the moment, having an inspiration for ch4 right now... so reviews could speed up the process. HINT! Hah, not that I don't want reviews anyway...

Revision notes: Nothing really new, just fixed some typo's I hope... and modified the disclaimer just a bit. I hope you approve Vash... ;)

Revision notes mk2: Tenses, tenses… how I hate thee! As you can guess, they are my pet peeve right now. ; Well, I hope that this fic is now better than before. I really do hope…

-Azrael's Wing

-We forget that we are all dead men conversing with dead men.

-Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinean poet

"Behold! I've become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds"

--Robert Oppenheimer


	3. To Live and Let Others Die

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma½, The Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Inu-Yasha... or whatever else there might end up in this fic. That's simple enough, isn't it... ; ...and if it isn't? Well, I could mention that I improved the bear traps with poison coating and upgraded the shotgun into a flamethrower. Good for roasting those slippery buggers, the lawyers that is...

Dialog:"…"

Thoughts: _are like this._

Warnings: Blood, death and cheap lives amongst other things... this is around the 1650's(?) after all. Not the 'civilized' age we live in... ;

The Knight of Shadow

Chapter 2 - To live… and let others die

By: Azrael's Wing

For the one formerly known as Ranma Saotome, now known simply as ronin Ranma, the past five years had been educational to say in the least. After all the time his outward appearance was still the same, save for looking few years older, a proof of what Xian had said about her gift being true, but there had been some changes in him trough the years none the less.

The most superficial ones were of course his clothes. As the pass of years had worn down the threads of the ones he had brought with him, he naturally had been forced to get some new ones. Although his style had remained mostly same through the years, the tunics he wore these days were black instead of red. It was an unconscious decision for him it seemed, perhaps reflecting the changes he had gone through in his mind but nonetheless it did seen to fit him.

Also, there was a pair of bracers around his wrists, made of leather and tempered steel that seemed to have seen much of use. They were a tool and a reminder for him at the same time, for as often as he had been forced to use his sword trough the years, he still tried to find a way to solve matters by martial arts. Sadly, there always seemed to be some challenger or a gang of bandits mucking around, forcing him resort to much more drastic methods; namely dismemberment and decapitations

Because of this, his family katana also hung now openly by his side, showing that these years in the past had helped him to discard some of Genma's more foolish beliefs... but not without some harsh lessons. As his right hand touched the hilt of the well used blade, his other hand rose to touch his left cheek, absently fingering a long scar crossing his face.

It was partly hidden beneath his hair, still held in the same pigtail as before in Nerima, but it was none the less prominent feature upon his face. Combined with the stylized tattoo of a horse on the other side of his face, they marked him as who he was. It was something that was slowly but surely becoming more and more widely known in the surrounding country, far more than he'd have preferred it to become.

Ranma's hand followed the ridges on his scarred flesh... starting near the hairline, continuing down his jaw, his fingers stopping just before his throat. The scar was slightly jagged, though already healed, hinting that the nature of its cause had not been that well made blade. Its cheapness however hadn't lessened its deadliness, and had the wound gone even slightly further, he would had likely bled to his death back then, his jugular cut wide open.

It was one reminder for him of the age and era he now lived in, a lesson that he wouldn't soon forget, for this was an age where life didn't have quite same value as where he came from. There were other scars, not as prominent as this one, but this was the first and most important. It was the reminder that he wasn't in Nerima anymore, somewhere where only consequences of the fights had been 'slight' beatings to the ground and LEO flights to the nearest pond.

As he continued walking to the next village down the road, his mind fell back to those days, bringing back memories of the events that had changed him... for the better or worse.

It had been little over a year after his arrival to this age, time he had spent mostly by training and studying what he had brought with him from Nerima. From time to time he would venture to the nearby villages, bartering for whatever he might need with what he had hunted, but most of the time he lived almost like a hermit, simply enjoying the nature and his newfound freedom to the fullest.

It was at that time that he finally got chance open Cologne's treasure box. While traveling, he had found himself near by a large village... large enough for some reason to have its own locksmith shop. Why the man had come to live there, he didn't know, but it was perfect opportunity for him. The box was still unopened due his wariness of the fear of traps there might be, and hopefully this man could be able to open it for him for the right price...

He had gone to the shop, hoping to have some luck at this time, as unlikely that might be. In Nerima he hadn't had that much of lady luck's blessings on him, but perhaps it would change now... or at least he could hope so.

As he entered through the doorway and saw the man, the first thought that crossed his mind was... the old man's a thief. With his own somewhat unfortunate experiences in this area, he could in a way sense it, and see the signs in the man. The nervous look, shifty eyes... the old coot was perhaps on the run from someone, or maybe he was just naturally paranoid. He didn't know, but did it really matter him? As long as the old man did his job, it was one and the same for him. Who was he worry about pasts of others right now?

This man introduced himself as Hachiro, a name that told little to him apart but from the fact that he probably came from far too large family. In exchange, he simply told the man his name and told about the box he had, saying only that it had been an... an inheritance for him. Showing it, he told him to open it with no questions asked, a demand that the old thief seemed to accepted soon enough after he'd shown enough money to him. Together then, they went to the backroom of Hachiro's shop the thief began the job of opening it.

As he had guessed, Cologne had indeed trapped the box, for it was sure to contain Amazon treasures. That is, any treasures that would find themselves in Amazon hands would be their treasures... or that's how it seemed most of the time, listening the old ghoul preach about female and Amazon superiority. None the less, he really hadn't expected what happened after Hachiro managed to get it open...

It took almost an hour for him to do it, as it seemed that Cologne had installed a somewhat modern lock into it at some point; showing that perhaps even the Amazons would get a bright new idea time to time. Like once in millennium. Even so, the man was master thief, or so it seemed, and finally the lid of the box sprang open... delivering death in its wake to its opener.

Cologne must have been more paranoid than he could have ever guessed, arming the box with such a trap. As the lid sprang open, numerous sharp needles flew from their hidden compartments at the man, surprising the old thief completely. Hachiro had barely enough time to exclaim in pain before the poison in the needles did its job, paralyzing his body and shut down his heart, killing him nearly in an instant.

He had barely enough time to blink before all this had already happened, leaving him momentarily frozen besides the dead body. Unfortunately, the ever present 'Murphy's Law' was already at work, for at that moment someone else decided to come for a visit. It was a teenage boy of perhaps fourteen years old. Seeing the scene in front of him he reached the first 'logical' conclusion he could; that Ranma was a thief and had killed the old man while trying to rob the place.

Grabbing the nearest weapon he could, a plain knife meant for everyday work from the near by table, the boy charged at him, full of righteous anger at the perceived misdeed. Before Ranma had even had a chance to react to the attack, the boy had already managed to strike his face with the knife, creating a large bleeding gash at its wake.

At that point, he began to see red... literally as well as figuratively. As much as he had hoped for it, it seemed that anywhere he'd go, someone would always find a way to blame him without waiting for explanations. He might have been partly guilty for the old man's death, but even so, this reaction was just far too much for him. In here, just like in Nerima, everyone just seemed to jump into conclusions... and that fanned the flames of his long dormant anger and rage.

For all the peace and quiet of the past year, he had not yet dealt with his emotions about Nerima. A fact that would have grave consequences for him, as now his mind went into an autopilot dealing with the threat, his negative emotions driving his body to act almost on its own.

As soon as his body perceived this new threat, as insignificant it in truth might have been, his actions were fully in progress and treated it like a state of mortal danger. In a blink of an eye his hands and legs had struck out with strength that was greatly out of proportions, breaking limbs of the boy like dry wooden twigs. This was immediately followed be two handed strike to the chest, shattering the boys ribcage and bursting his heart in the process. As the already dead body flew to the wall... and through it, he could only blink at the hole in the wall, barely even comprehending what had just happened.

When the awful truth finally dawned at him, the only thing he could do was to grab the treasure box and flee, cloaking himself with Umi-sen-ken and making his way to the roof. Once there, he got a glimpse of a broken body of the boy lying on the ground, surrounded by an alarmed throng of villagers and someone who seemed to be the boy's mother. Bile rising to his throat, he ran like crazy to the direction of the nearby forest, leaving the mourning villagers behind in their search for the mysterious killer.

Far away from the scene of his crime his legs finally failed, and he finally collapsed to the ground, his stomach heaving at thoughts of what he had done. Finally he just couldn't hold it anymore and retched, emptying his stomach to the forest floor. After minutes of vomiting, his convulsions finally ended but left behind a hauntingly empty feeling, a feeling that that had nothing to do with an empty stomach.

It wasn't until after that he really noticed his wound, the gash still slightly bleeding. His fast healing had closed the wound in part, but not after it had soiled his clothes, decorating his tunic with numerous crimson splotches of blood. Not capable... or even that willing to take care of it, he simply stared his reflection from nearby pond. He absently thought it would scar; a thought that he welcomed at that moment, for then it would at least be some kind of a punishment to him for his deed.

He didn't know how long he spent there, sitting by the water and staring his reflection, but when he eventually got up, it was already becoming dark. Seeing that the night was coming he made a camp with trembling hands. Was it from lack of blood or quilt he didn't know, but somehow it didn't seem to matter. Finished, he fell to his bedroll, tired to the bone and still reeling from the horror of his act in his mind. Finally he fell asleep... still shivering and dressed in his bloodstained clothes, his dreams filled with nightmares and voices of the accusing villagers and a young boy...

For a moment, the memories stayed in his mind, eyes glazing slightly as he dealt with them. Soon enough though Ranma had buried them back where they belonged, his eyes clearing and his face regaining the look he had before this brief moment of remembrance; a bored look of cool disinterest.

In a strange and somewhat sad way, what had happened had been almost useful, for the catharsis that had followed forced him to reign in his newfound negative emotions. It had taken him several weeks to collect himself well enough to venture out of the wood again, his quilt for the deaths of the boy and old man constantly running through his mind, but finally he had done it.

Through self control, meditation and imaginative use of the Soul of Ice, he had examined and dissected those emotions... taking control of them and mastering them instead of letting them run amok in his soul. In the end, he had indeed succeeded, rising like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes of his old life, the bitter irony of it not a bit lost to him.

The death of the phoenix-god had been, in a way, the very beginning of his rebirth, only to have it finished here in the past by the tragedy of his own actions. When he had come to this era, he had still been a boy... no matter how old in years he'd been. By being forced to look deep into himself, as much as it might have sickened him, had forced him to grow beyond what he had been.

He could never fix what he had done, no matter how much he'd try, but he could try to atone... in his own way at least. As much as it sometimes scared him to admit, those two deaths had pushed him beyond certain barrier, making him capable to killing if necessary. Therefore, he sought to put his newfound 'skill' of his to as good use as he could find, protecting those that couldn't protect themselves from the beasts that seemed fill the country after the wars.

He couldn't call himself as a martial artist anymore, but instead of that he'd be a warrior... and there was much need for such. There were thieves and bandits all over the countryside, plaguing the villages and causing trouble to the people. He might not be so good and innocent as he'd once had been but he wouldn't become a force of evil like them either. As he saw it in his mind, that would put him in same level with Genma, something he would never accept.

So, his fists and sword had seen the end of countless of such lowlifes, hopefully saving lives and futures of those that might have been harmed. Even so, with his newfound vigilance he was not perfect... far from it, as another scar, hidden beneath his clothes would tell.

_For all of the insights I might have gained, there were some lessons from Genma that were harder to lose than others. Then again, not all the things that had happened in the past were that bad..._ he thought, once again his thoughts falling back to his memories of the recent years... to an incident little more than year ago.

He had continued traveling as a simple ronin, mostly helping those could and taking on jobs from various local lords in eradicating numerous gangs of bandits that seemed to populate this area.

In his studies of the art, he had learned all that he could from the materials he had brought with him, learning every special technique he could. Most of them he had mastered, though some he could only perform weakly... like some of the Amazon techniques.

He figured it was mostly because he didn't yet have enough chi, something enough time and training would no doubt solve. After all, the old ghoul was centuries old. These years were no doubt both due and adding to her chi reserves. In time though, he should be easily able to match and even surpass the elder's reserves, thus making this problem somewhat a moot point.

It was mostly because of this that he was searching someone to teach him the art of sword fighting. He had the Saotome honor blade with him after all; it wouldn't hurt to learn that art as well. He had always been somewhat interested of weapons, no matter what Genma had preached, and perhaps it would help with his mother as well once he'd get back in his own time...

This in mind, he had sought to find a sensei to teach him, but had little success. It seemed as if none of the masters seemed to appreciate homeless ronin, thus depriving him knowledge he sought. It went like that for a long time until he met a man on the road, harried by a pair of thieves. Seeing that the man was armed, he decided to stand by and just watch, figuring that if the man couldn't defend him he'd jump in, but for now he'd just see how he would do against these two.

Because he wasn't near enough, he couldn't hear what the man had said in response to their demands, but from the way the thieves were brandishing their weapons it probably wasn't anything flattering, probably something to do with their ancestry or various sexual habits. Not soon after, they charged at the man, clearly intent on removing him of his possessions, and most likely his life as well.

At this point he was prepared to intervene, as the man didn't seem to be defending himself. However, this presumption proved soon to be false, as he saw a bright flash and heard the familiar sound of drawn steel. The draw had been so fast that he had almost missed it, but the effects of it were there to be seen by all in their gruesome detail.

One of the thieves was lying on the ground, his intestines leaking to the ground through an open wound to his gut. The more 'luckier' one of them was simply missing his left hand, the bloody stump gushing his bodily fluids all over him and his companion. In his horror, the thief tried to make a run for it, running as fast as he could away from the deadly swordsman. The man in question didn't seem to care though, and for a good reason, for the mutilated thief soon fell to the ground, due a shock, blood loss or perhaps both... he didn't know but it didn't really matter.

Turning his attention away from the dead or dying bandits, he turned it instead to the source of their discomfort.

The swordsman was somewhat older than he himself it seemed, perhaps in his late twenties, dressed in an outfit that slightly resembled him of Kuno's, his long black hair falling straight to his shoulders. There were some old scars on him, in hands and face, but nothing as serious as his own... but none the less, the man radiated silent sense of danger that was quite fitting due his recent actions.

It was clear that the man knew he was there, his form still taunt and prepared for action, but seeing that Ranma wasn't acting hostile towards him he finally relaxed slightly. In fact, it seemed that that the man had recognized him in someway, but how he had no idea.

"Greetings stranger," the said began warily, perhaps still slightly uncertain of his intentions concerning him.

"Greetings to you as well... I wondered if you need some help with dealing with this thrash," he gestured as the corpses near by, "But it seems that my worries were unfounded. You're quite skilled with your weapon..." he said to him, hoping for the man to name himself.

Relieved by Ranma's neutral response, the man relaxed slightly and even smiled a bit at his compliments. "Sorry about that, one can't just be too careful these days," the man said and then continued, "I'm just a simple swordsman, a ronin if you will and I'm called Tatewaki..."

At that point Ranma gave an involuntary shiver, the name and outfit bringing back certain memories from Nerima. Tatewaki noticed this and paused to question Ranma.

"Perhaps you've heard of me then..." he asked, eyes clouded by some emotion Ranma couldn't recognize at the moment.

"No, you simply reminded me of another man, in different time and place, that's all. ...You wouldn't happen to know of a family known as Kuno's though?" he replied, still wondering about this strange coincident.

"I do remember of hearing of a noble family of that name, though I assure you, I have nothing to do with them," Tatewaki answered, relaxing a bit more for some reason. "Anyway, as I was saying, I am known as Tatewaki and I think I guess what your name is stranger," Tatewaki said with an appraising look.

"Oh, how is that? I really don't think we've met before…"

"Hah, it seems that you don't know how famous... or infamous you really are. It's quite well known in these parts that there's a slayer of bandits with a scar and tattoo on his face, just like you seem to have. In fact, they say that the tattoo is in a shape of a horse, and curiously yours seems to be one." Tatewaki said smirking, and then asked, "So tell me, are you the 'Demon' Ranma, ronin that kills more often with his fists than with the sword he carries?

"What! 'Demon' Ranma!? What in the hell..." he blurted out, making Tatewaki chuckle in amusement.

"Oh my, it really seems that you haven't been following the village gossip in your travels. Don't worry; I'll bring you up to date... We crazy ronins must stick together, right?" Tatewaki said with a faint smile, leading undignified and spluttering Ranma away from the corpses, setting a camp next to nearby woods...

He smiled briefly at the memory, remembering fondly the time he had spent with the swordsman...

It had been beginning of his first friendship ever since he had arrived to this era, something that he in all of his self-reliance had missed. Unlike those in Nerima, those that he had wanted to called his friends... Ryoga, Ukyo, perhaps even Kasumi in a way, Tatewaki had no vendettas or ulterior motives towards him. Back in Nerima, they all had their own demands and blind spots, and as much as he had wanted to call them as his friends, by hindsight they hadn't really such that much.

Indeed, this encounter had been one of the best things that had happened to him in his 'past'. Even though it had led him to re-think some things concerning himself and his curse, something that he was somewhat uncertain of, he wouldn't trade those memories away for no price.

Once Tatewaki had made his camp, he had already calmed and was back being curious about the swordsman, curiosity that was shared to both ways it seemed. From what he gathered from him, Tatewaki had a somewhat shady past, being a former retainer of a now fallen lord, and seemed to on run from someone. It didn't really matter to him though, due his own past and the events following his appearance here he was quite familiar with the situation. As far as he cared for now, Tatewaki was a friendly companion on the road, possibly even a friend... and that was rare enough for him.

In response to the questions Tatewaki asked his own about him, curious of his adventures and the truth about rumors about him. He told him most of which had happened once he arrived, including even the story about how he got his scar, for some reason feeling that Tatewaki wouldn't judge him for what had happened.

By now the memory had become almost just a scar of its own, but he was none the less gratified of the understanding look in Tatewaki's face and eyes once having heard the story. It seemed he wasn't the only one here with traumatic events in the past, a sad fact that seemed strangely comforting at the moment...

And so the time passed comfortably around the campfire, two of them exchanging tales of past adventures. During these talks he tentatively asked of Tatewaki could he train him in the use of the sword, having previously told him of how he used mainly his martial arts in combat. Tatewaki was silent for a while after that, thinking the question for moment or two before answering. Eventually he had agreed, stating that, "If they'd travel together he might as well teach him, if in exchange Ranma would teach him unarmed combat."

He really didn't have any objections to that, and said so as well, cementing the deal with his newfound friend. Then, as he reached for his cup and was prepared to take a sip from it, Tatewaki dropped a question to him, opening eventually quite a few new things to them.

"Oh by the way, you wouldn't happen to have a sister would you? It's just that I've heard of a redheaded girl that travels in similar clothes to yours, she's even supposed have a tattoo just like yours. I've heard that she's quite a looker too... I don't think I'd mind bedding her," Tatewaki finished jokingly, thus causing him to spill his drink over himself... or herself as it now unfortunately was.

Taking a double, and then a triple look of the redhead in front of him, Tatewaki was understandingly speechless at the sight. After gaining some amount of his composure back, he started to question Ranma about this strange change, "How in the..." only to be interrupted by Ranma.

"A curse," he spat out tersely, clearly irritated about the situation he was in.

"A curse?" Tatewaki repeated after her, still quite shell-shocked by the sudden change he'd seen.

Blowing his now red bangs away from his eyes, Ranma tiredly proceeded to give his companion the short and edited version of the facts behind his aqua-sexual nature.

"It's a Chinese curse, from a training grounds called Jyusenko. My... father took me there, being stupid enough to go there without knowing any Chinese. Lots of springs, each with its own of so tragic curse, and I just happened to drop into the pool of the drowned girl..."

At this point Tatewaki interrupted him with a question. "...but how do you change then? And why did you change just now?" he asked, still somewhat puzzled by this strange turn of events.

"It's the water... cold changes me into girl, warm back to a guy," he said, getting some more water into her cup and warming it up with his chi. At least this way I can always have warm water when needed. Best way I got to control the curse so far, which isn't saying much really...He thought bitterly before dumping the warmed up water on her head.

After shocked Tatewaki had witnessed the reversed change, he continued. "And as for why? Hell, after that comment of yours, what would you expect moron?" he finished, sarcasm dripping from his every word.

"Err... Right, sorry about that," Tatewaki said sheepishly, apologizing and giving a weak bark of laughter.

"Nah, forget it. It isn't really that bad, not anymore at least. I've grown used to my 'girl' side; it's just the sudden changes that give me the grief. Even with my water warming trick here, I can't stop it being a pain in the ass," Ranma said unhappily. "Anyway, let's get some sleep. It's getting dark and we probably have a long day tomorrow. We're going to teach each other while we travel, remember?" he finished, falling to his bedroll and asleep at almost same moment, thus showing a clear example of his extraordinary sleeping capabilities in action.

It had definitely led into some ideas that he hadn't expected, he mused as the memories replayed in his mind. Any kind of thoughts about a sexual relationship with a man had been as far from his mind as possible back then, not that he really had been that innocent. Genma had been sure to take care of that, make no doubt about it.

One does certainly get a crash course in human biology when taken to some of best whorehouses in around the world. Genma had always been greedy, but didn't mean he didn't know how to use his money well. Indeed, they had been very educational times for a fourteen year old boy.

That however didn't prepare him for that night that followed, back then when memories of that sin he'd committed came to haunt him…

So, they traveled together, training each other and killing some imbecilic bandits on the way, and found out that they got along pretty well. A nice surprise for both of them, as neither of them had many friends. Finding like minded individual to travel with was a stroke of luck for both of them, and something they had sorely needed.

These happy times couldn't last forever though, and as they passed through a small village, out of blue he ran into a scene that reminded him of certain deeply buried event. The was funeral going on, some old man having finally died because of age or something, and there was group of mourners nearby, following the event with their sad teary eyes. Otherwise it might have passed by his notice without any greater reaction, were not for one of the mourners...

A young boy, almost dead ringer for the one he had blasted through the wall back then. Even though he had sought to deal with the event, it had been something to leave a deep mark... or a scar on his soul, and something about that sight brought up that memory, disturbing him deeply.

They had left that village quickly then, not even pausing for food or drink as usual. He hadn't told Tatewaki what was wrong, though he suspected that the man already knew, remembering their exchange of stories in the camp back when they first met.

Even so, he didn't stop to talk with him, but instead chose to continue traveling onwards to the next village on the road, his gloomy mood quite apparent to his companion. Unfortunately for them, the next village wasn't really that close, forcing them to camp outside as usual. The mood at the fire was a somber one that night, neither of them speaking much as they ate. He was deeply engrossed with his depressing memories and Tatewaki chose to respect his privacy. In the end, they had both went soon to sleep, he with the heavy thoughts plaguing his mind.

In his dreams he was haunted by the memories of that day, the old man and the boy blaming him for their deaths with renewed vigor. It didn't help that what those dreams said was quite justified, for their fates were indeed his fault, in one way or another. Finally he was been shaken awake by Tatewaki, his whimpers and thrashing having apparently woken up his friend.

As he gradually woke up, he noticed that it had begun to rain during the night, his cursed female form a clear proof of the water's effect on... her. At that moment though, the possible discomfort of the curse was furthest thing from his head, his mind still reeling with the nightmarish images of her dream. Seeing the concerned face of her friend hovering above her, she hugged him tightly, not caring about the state of her clothing or gender at that moment.

Sobbing to into Tatewaki's shirt, she began to feel strange feelings in herself. They were feelings that even she could recognize with her limited experience in such matters. That realization had at the same time shocked and frightened him, but somehow it also intrigued as well. It was a situation unheard of for, something that could never have happened in Nerima.

That someone would take time to comfort him in a situation such as this?! It would have been impossible with Genma's and Nodoka's views of 'manliness' disdaining such things, and all the girls chasing him and rest of the Nerima, or for that matter the world, trying to defeat or even to kill him would have made such situation an outright impossibility.

But whatever these newfound emotions of his were, something suppressed in his mind or simply a fluke born of random hormones, it would be something that he'd have to find out himself on his journey through time and space. Even so, now there wouldn't be anyone to prevent him thinking such thoughts.

This however brought him back to the very thought that had started his current chain of thought, the teachings of Genma concerning women and about women. His belief that women were inferior, incapable of becoming fighters and not to be harmed physically… The last one perhaps a strange form of pity for it didn't seem to fit into Genma's otherwise almost subhuman profile. Nonetheless, it would be a lesson he'd happily forget, and the reminder for why would always be found on his back, reminding him…

They had traveled together for few months doing what they were good at, mainly killing bandits and acting as bodyguards for some minor nobles. Eventually though, they came across a village, strangely deserted and seemingly devoid of life. Even so, something just didn't seem right at the place. It seemed to be in far too good condition to be an abandoned village, the buildings too sturdy and the road too well traveled. Unfortunately it was also in their direct path, making avoiding it more than slightly troublesome, and so they had no other choice but to go through it.

It wasn't until they were almost halfway through that the true nature of the village came apparent, for suddenly they were ambushed by a large group of villagers dressed in rags, armed with knives and farming tools. They looked half famished, their faces worn by desperation. It seemed that as the village had fallen into truly hard times, and the inhabitants that had remained had chosen an alternative way to gain their living… banditry through ambushing unwary travelers.

It was clear from the beginning that the villagers wouldn't listen for reason, their desperate attitude making that more than clear. There wasn't time to think as the mob came at them, creepily silent for all their deadly intent. At that point they really had no other choice but to defend themselves by any means they could, and in this case there wasn't a non-lethal option.

Forced to use the skills he'd learned from Tatewaki during the months they'd traveled together, he carved a bloody path through them, his progress mirrored by his companion besides him. Finally they reached the other side of the village, a trail of butchered villagers following behind and crimson coat of paint covering their arms.

Growing tired to this senseless slaughter, he suddenly sensed a presence behind him and turned around, the bloodied katana still in his hand. What greeted him was a sight he didn't expect, that of a middle aged woman, a housewife in this era no doubt. Not seeing any weapon in her hands and tired of killing, he simply turned his back to the woman, perhaps some last vestiges of Genma's teachings about women still clouding his mind.

No matter what the reason, he soon found out the hard way it wasn't a sound decision from his part. This was pointed out to him by a simple and plain dagger, its blade buried deep in his back. Shocked by the sudden attack his arm moved almost by instinct, and the katana in his hand soon separated the enraged woman's head from her shoulders. As the headless body… and the head fell to the ground, so did he begin to fall as well, only to be caught by his comrade in arms. As the shock and blood loss eventually began to take their toll, and as his mind began its fall into the abyss, he wordlessly cursed Genma for all the troubles he managed to cause, even centuries before the bastard had managed to be born…

It had perhaps been the last real trial he had to pass before being free of Genma and his ways of thinking. After a week of the slow healing and coughing blood every other time he opened his mouth, he for sure wasn't going to turn his back for anyone; be it a man, woman, child or some kami… especially if it was a kami. With his luck, even though he might be in good standings with one right now, there would no doubt be countless others like Saffron ready to go after him for some reason or another. It seemed that troubles were in his blood, one way or another.

After managing to heal himself with Tatewaki's help, they had traveled little more but eventually their paths had gone to different directions. Tatewaki had heard something regarding to his own past, something to do with the reason why he was a ronin in the first place, and wanted to take care of it by himself. As much as he would have liked to go and help him, Ranma respected his friend's wishes and they said their goodbyes, promising to see each other as soon as they could.

After that he had simply traveled from place to place, no specific destination in mind. For a long time, for him at least, there hadn't been any big adventures or great upheavals in his life. It was something almost unheard of in his life… and something that made him quite weary lately. After all, who knew when the troubles would raise their ugly head once again?

_Oh well, whatever comes will come, whether I'd like or not, so it doesn't matter that much anyway. After all, Ranma Saotome doesn't lose or quit, and that's one thing that hasn't changed in these years, no matter how much I might have changed otherwise. Heh, the things are just getting started and still have more than three and a half centuries of life left here in the past. Who knows what will happen in that time…_

_Why did I ever come to this place? _Ranma thought with slight irritation as he walked through not-so crowded village road, his eyes scanning for any possible threats nearby. These thoughts and actions were understandable, for the village he was visiting wasn't exactly the cleanest or most law abiding place found in Japan of this era, far from it.

Its streets were riddled with beggars and whores, characters of shady nature filled its alleys and doorways, and general lawlessness was abundant. It was a place that, for some reason, reminded him greatly of his so-called father and the ten year training trip he had suffered with him. This was no doubt partly the reason why people seemed to avoid him at the moment. He seemed to be quite infamous these days, and murderous expression on his face wasn't that inviting for casual conversation… or for any other lind of business for that matter, and for that he was grateful.

_Then again, it's just my luck to find this hive of Yakuza wannabes, when only looking for a place to sleep in my travels. It's almost like a fate to me, that I'll always end up in places that I hate, or places where people hate me. Heh, at least there's no confusion about this place… I definitely hate this putrid little sinkhole_, he thought as he fended off yet another beggar, an action that brought forth a fresh stream of curses from the young preteen boy in question. _…hmm, that's a new one. Well, at least that encounter was someway useful, if only for its educational value._

Eventually, as the evening slowly turned into night he, found a building claiming to be an inn or a hostel of some sort… even though its appearance didn't give much hope for its interior, or even less for any class. Slipping inside the building, he spotted a seedy looking innkeeper and gave him enough money for couple of days, an act that made the innkeepers eyes light up greedily. The man accepted the money without further comments, giving only a slight nod to him as he headed upstairs to his futon.

Finally having gained some peace and quiet, he lied down to it for his long denied rest, not noticing the speculative look in the innkeeper's eyes as he watched him. As the fatigue finally took its toll, he finally fell asleep; not noticing the innkeeper slipping past him and into the night.

Out of the building, the man headed towards perhaps the single well built building in the whole village… or well built in comparison with rest of the village at least. Walking to its backdoor, he knocked thrice at the surprisingly sturdy door, informing its residents of his arrival. After few seconds the door opened, letting him to slip in into a meeting with the unspoken lord and master of this village.

In a room guarded by numerous nasty looking thugs sat a man, a man that no one in the village dared to cross. Though not large in statue, this man nonetheless radiated a presence around him, and his eyes were those of a predator. Dressed just in a plain black kimono, he had nonetheless has the mannerisms of a lord… and why not, for he was the lord of this village all but in name. And for one to become the king rat in a place such as this, one couldn't but help to have quite a few daggers buried in peoples backs and bodies buried and hidden. There was a very good reason why the innkeeper prostrated on his knees before this man, addressing him with the most respectful tone he could muster…

"Greetings Saionji-sama, I've come to you with news I hope you'll find worth your time."

"Indeed? Tell me then, what are these so important news I must hear?"

"Well, you see… It seems that we have quite an illustrious visitor in our humble village tonight, a ronin whose name and fame… or shall we say infamy have reached far and wide. This famous visitor of ours is none other than the 'Demon' Ranma…"

"The Demon?! The ronin who is rumored to have slain entire bands of men all by himself and many of them even barehanded… he is here?"

"The very same, and yes… He's sleeping in my inn at this very moment."

"…I assume you have deduced that he's not after any of us then?"

"No, he seems to be just passing through, apparently not very pleased of our village in general."

"Well then, this is then an opportunity for us… which we can use in couple ways it seems. We could try killing him, but success for such venture might not be so certain. He is after all quite famous for his skills, isn't he? No, I think there's a way we can handle things so that we'll win either way…"

"What do mean?

"You do remember our village's little problem, do you not? The troublesome beast that lives in that nearby cave? Its bloody rages have been a bane to us for a long time, and I'd like to finally get rid of it. If our visitor could handle it, so be it, but if not… that would be equally fine with me."

"But what should I offer…"

"Here you go, that should be enough for our ronin to take the job," said Saionji, throwing heavy bag of money at the man. "I doubt even someone such as him is immune to money, and that should be enough to persuade him to take the job you're going to offer him."

"Very well, I'll do as you say my lord."

"Do give all of it to him. If he does manage to defeat our beast, he certainly has earned it, and if not… Well, you can keep it then. You can't anger a dead man after all…"

"Yes, my lord…" the innkeeper said glumly. He hated to loose an opportunity like this, but he wouldn't go against Saionji's wishes. There were far better ways to commit suicide, much less painful as well.

Taking Saionji's indulgent wave of hand as dismissal, he bowed deeply at the man before leaving the room, happy to have survived through his encounter his skin intact…

If there was such a thing as danger sense of any sort, Ranma would have developed it. For all his troubles in past and present, good instincts about any troubles coming his way would have been a necessity for any hope of survival or sanity. Therefore, as Ranma woke up from his troubled sleep, he could immediately sense that something was going on, something that didn't promise anything good for him by a long shot.

Rising warily from his futon, he made his way down to the innkeeper to check out of the place, his heightened senses screaming danger all the way. When he finally reached the man, he almost expected the innkeeper to scream bloody murder and go at his throat, only to be offered a large amount of money for taking care of some 'beast'.

The thing was, he could sense that the man wasn't lying. However, he doubted it was the full truth either. There was something inherently distrustful in that man, but he just couldn't put his finger to it. Then again, he was in dire need of traveling money, and this job couldn't really be that hard, now could it?

"So, where does this thing live?" he finally asked from the man, still a bit undecided on the matter, and his suspicions balanced against the weighty bag of money in his hand.

"It lives in a nearby cave, coming out of it only in the nighttime. We would have done it ourselves, but we might have some heavy casualties doing that. You really can't blame us from being cautious, can you?" the innkeeper finished saying, an insincere looking smile fixed upon his face.

"No, I guess not… Fine, I'll take the job. Just show me where to go, and I'll take care of it. As soon as it's done, I can get out of here…"

"Just follow me," the innkeeper said stepping out of the building, beckoning Ranma to follow after him.

"…I've got a bad feeling about this," Ranma muttered, trailing after the man. Unfortunately, he had no idea how right his instincts were…

Following his guide through numerous on twisted paths he somehow seemed to know, they descended deep into the nearby woods. This trip continued for quite a while, his goal seemingly located in the centre of this small little forest. Suddenly the man stopped, halting their progress.

"Sorry, but I really have no interest in risking myself and going near that thing. This is as far as I'll go. The cave is just little bit further into that grove, and you can prove your deed simply by bringing its head back to me in the village," the man said and then turned around, speedily disappearing though the way they came.

Ranma barely had enough time to blink before he was gone, leaving him alone in the middle of the forest. "Hmph, not so ordinary beast it seems, if can inspire that kind of dread. Oh well, it's not as if he'd been much of a use in a real fight anyway."

Now alone, Ranma continued toward his goal, soon noticing it shade of some huge trees. A mound surrounded be numerous trees, its entrance was framed by several huge boulders, forming a primitive arch of sorts. These made it look almost manmade, giving it somewhat unsettling appearance.

Dismissing these thoughts from his mind, he approached the entrance warily with his katana ready at hand. It was dark there… and he felt something. It was a feeling that he should leave and not return, preferably having done yesterday. It was too bad these thoughts seemed to come a bit too late, namely today, and the only thing that seemed to fit his mind when ended up staring into pair of glowing yellow eyes was; "Oh shit, I really should have staid in bed…" before everything went red…

TBC…?

Author notes: At the moment, I have ideas for three crossovers to happen in that time, all of them probably quite long. Even though there will be hints of the Inu-Yasha cross in this chapter, they won't become a major part plot until later on, right now I've got other things(and crossovers) in mind. ;

Other things... Those that might have read my other fic(s), in this case 'Circle of Blood' in particular, might have noticed that I have a tendency to write Yaoi/Yuri into my works. As you can see, hints of that have indeed slipped in here as well... ; Even so, figuring that readers of Ranma fics might have less fans for such material (than fans of Weiss that is), I'll try to keep the Yaoi content of this fic in minimum (or at least try…) In fact, as far as I can see, this is all that there will be for a loooong time. Be happy about it... or not. Things may change depending on my mood.

-Azrael's Wing

Author notes mk2: Concerning comments about Ranma and his sexuality (some even quite rabid… ;), I've modified this chapter when dealing with yaoi themes (or whatever). This doesn't mean that they won't reappear in the future, though it may be so. Even though I apparently tend to write yaoi and yuri (at least so far), I'm not exactly a romance writer. It's the plot that matters, and if there happens to be aforementioned paring type in the fic? Well, who knows? That's yet to be seen…

"Distrust all in whom the urge to punish is powerful"

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, "Thus Spake Zarathustra"

"In the name of the moon I will punish you!"

- Sailor Moon, "any episode"

"Yes, O Munificent and Gorged Leader of the Unenlightened and I thank you for your time. For a ruthless carnivore you are not too unintelligent."

- ???


	4. Curiosity Killed the cat, but satisfacti...

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma½, The Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen (as minor its part is), Inu-Yasha... or whatever else there might end up in this fic. That's simple enough isn't it... ; ...and if it isn't? Well, I could mention that I improved the bear traps with poison coating and upgraded the shotgun into a flamethrower. Good for roasting those slippery buggers; lawyers...

Dialog:"…"

Thoughts: _are like this._

Warnings: Blood, death and cheap lives...

The Knight of Shadow

Chapter 3 – Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction…

By: Azrael's Wing

It was a place of shadows, a den for those who dwell in darkness. Deep within that darkness, the goddess of assassins, Xian il Shin'igami, suddenly convulsed in agony when a headache size of metaphorical Mt. Everest, Mt. Fuji and Kilimanjaro thrown together struck at her. It took few moments for her to figure out what the hell was going on, with the gremlins banging at her head disturbing her, but soon enough she realized source of her pain. It was the connection to her ascendant, its automatic danger screaming like a fire-alarm next to a erupting volcano.

A brief moment of concentration allowed her to focus on him; mentally looking into what the hell was going on where-ever Ranma was at this moment. It really shouldn't be anything that bad, now should it? Unfortunately, as soon as her mind had looked deep enough, it became clear to her that she had severely underestimated Ranma's ability to get in trouble.

Now, even though that miscalculation would definitely be fixed in the future, she would still have quite a dilemma in her hands. How in hell would she ensure that Ranma would come out of this mess even remotely in a single piece… considering that this time his opponent was a feline demon lord in throes a berserker rage? It truly was days like this that made her think deep thoughts; like why in the hell had she agreed to become a god of any sort…

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Through his life, Ranma had faced some rude awakenings, most of them either from hands of his father or from his of so loving fiancé. Never before however had he woken up like this. He was bleeding from countless cuts and wounds, his intestines barely staying within his stomach, and lying on top of a bloody corpse of a naked cat demon of some sort. If he'd only live through this mess, he'd definitely have a stories to impress people with…

It took a few moments for him to figure out what exactly had woken him up, as scrambled as his brain was at the moment, and as soon as he did figure it out, he wished that he hadn't. The source of his discomfort, aside from not so mint condition of his mangled body, was his 'bed'. Going through the throes of quite rigorous rigor mortis, it made quite clear to him that he was laying on top a naked MALE cat demon.

As the things were, they couldn't get much worse. As much as he tried, he could barely move his limbs and as he lied there, he could feel his life-force slowly seeping away through his bleeding guts. It was unlikely that anyone would come to his aid in a place like this. It was feared for obvious reasons, and any of those to come around would be more than happy to just put him out of his misery and loot his still warm corpse.

Deep in his now sluggish thoughts, Ranma suddenly felt something try take over his body, forcing it to act against his own will. Trying to fight against it he tried to force his body to resist, his mind was deeply disturbed by this sudden compulsion to move. Suddenly though, he heard a faintly familiar voice in his head, saying that he should simply trust… her? While he couldn't recognize the voice in the state he was in, it did feel faintly familiar, familiar and safe enough that in the end he did give in to it and where-ever it would lead voluntarily.

As soon as he let loose of his will his body felt a sudden burst of energy, the alien will collecting his last dregs of life-force into a final desperate movement. A move that to his great surprise had him assault the body he was lying on, plunging his hands deep into the chest of the beast. There they grabbed something soft and warm and ripped it off, bringing it out from its chest and in front of him in all its gruesome glory.

If Ranma had had any kind of control for his limbs, he would have dropped the item in disgust, as what he saw was bloody heart of the demon lying under him. Now however, having relinquished his free will for the moment, his arms brought the blood dripping hunk of flesh to his mouth. Able only to watch and gibber within his mind, he saw part of it disappear into his mouth. As he felt his jaw chew the meat and his tongue taste its burning blood, the only thing that kept his sanity going was somewhat soothing voice inside his mind, telling him to relax and accept the gift, whatever that would mean.

…_how in hell could this be a gift of any kind?_ Ranma thought just before unimaginable torrent of pain encompassed his whole body. His blood was boiling in his veins, his brain full of hellfire demanding to be released from its confinement. As his body went through its metamorphosis he tried to hold on to his fleeting consciousness, but he could only do so for few moments before his mind and body both gave up. When the blessed oblivion began to take him he faintly wondered what would come out this suffering of his, but then even that spark of thought left him, leaving behind only darkness.

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Ranma's second awakening wasn't nearly as difficult as the first one for some strange reason. In fact, instead being gutted like a fish he felt better than fine. His wounds had healed mysteriously and his fatigue was gone as well. All that remained was a strange feeling of chill within him, and instinctively he knew that it had nothing to do with the state of his clothes or the cold looking cave he was in. Then, suddenly Ranma realized something.

"Wait a moment… How can I now see in this place? There isn't any light around, and last time I woke up it was pitch black in here. What the hell has happened to me?" Ranma wondered absently as he rose from top of the body he was on and took first real look at his surroundings.

The first his eyes noticed was naturally the body of whomever or whatever had assaulted him. Seeing it really the first time, or at least as far as he could remember that is, it was at the same time a quite curious and gruesome sight. Aside from the gaping bloody hole where its heart should have been, it wasn't exactly a sight he'd like see anyway due its obviously feline nature, or at least that's what he should have thought. Now however his ever-present phobia cats was curiously absent, making him wonder what other changes might have his strange dinner have caused.

This in mind, Ranma absently wiped his mouth with back of his hand, cleaning it from the half dried blood. This act however made him aware of another change within him as his lips pressed slightly into his teeth. Apprehensively probing his teeth with his tongue he confirmed the obvious and somewhat disturbing fact. Now this was certainly something unexpected.

_Hold on! Since when exactly have I have had fangs in my mouth!?_

Taking another quick look at the dead and demonic humanoid at his feet, he noticed the obvious feline characteristics on it. As it was naked, he could see that its body was covered in fine white fur, and both its hands and legs ended to dangerous looking claws. These things however were a minor concern to him, mainly because he would have definitely felt if he'd been covered it fur, and longer nails weren't probably that big a deal compared to rest of the package. _Or at least I'd like to think so…_

No, what concerned him most was its face. The mouth revealed two rows of sharp fangs, and the wide open eyes were bright yellow with vertical slits in its pupils. Now that was disturbing, for he wouldn't like to fend of raging mobs with sickles and pitchforks in the near future. As this thought passed through his mind, he briefly wondered why he wasn't bothered to any greater extent about this. It was as if his emotions were somehow dulled or something. Was it simply because of shock, or was there another more insidious reason for it?

However, that fleeting thought was pushed aside the moment he saw a pool of water next to the entrance. It would certainly be able to show him whatever external changes there might be on him. Nearly leaping there in one jump, Ranma was both eager and apprehensive in taking a look at whatever changes he might have. Finally, pushing all the fears aside he finally took a look.

The vision that greeted him wasn't nearly as bad that he had feared, but it wasn't that great news for him either. For most part his face was still quite human, but there were some troublesome changes in it nonetheless. His new pair of fangs was least of his problems, as they could be hidden easily enough, and his eyes weren't that much different. Even though they had small slits in them and glowed in dark wasn't that big deal. At least they were still the same color. The strange symbol of half-moon on his forehead was even less of a problem from his point of view. No, it was his ears that were the problem. Specifically the fact that they were now black and white furry triangles situated on top his head.

_Oh great, now I look like a catboy from those manga Akane and Nabiki used to read. How in a world am I supposed to hide those things? I don't think the locals would appreciate those things, as cute as girls in my time might find them…_

Absently splashing a bit of cold water on himself, he decided to take a look at himself as a girl. The result was mostly same, though there was a little detail that was somewhat worse from his point of view, and that was the color of her ears.

_Just wonderful… I'm even cuter as a pink eared catgirl I suppose. This just keeps getting better and better!_

Heating some water with his chi, he turned himself back and started looking for something to cover his head with. He took a closer look at what the cave held, and finally he noticed that at the furthest corner from the entrance there seemed to be an opening of some sort, leading further into the cavern. Eager to find something of use out of this mess Ranma went to investigate it, thus finding what apparently were the personal chambers of the cave's now deceased occupant.

It wasn't anything special, far from it. In fact, it seemed that whatever sanity that demon might have once possessed, it had lost it quite a while ago. The room might once have been well enough made, for a cavern that is, but now it was a clear testament for chaos.

The furs used as mattress stank and were stained with blood and ichor, the sturdy chest in the corner was filled with trinkets and trash. Looking through the mess, he eventually found a white robe made of strange material crumbled in one pile of trash. As picked it up and dusted it off, a handful of strange looking sticks fell from its folds. Ranma quickly tried it on; delighted by the fact that it had a hood.

_Great! Now at least I don't have to worry about those things showing up all the time. Hm? What are these things, 'cause they don't look like ordinary sticks to me?_

Taking a closer look at them, he realized that they were not sticks at all but instead broken pieces of arrows. Looking at them close enough, he could still see bloodstains on the tips… and what was that foul stench? Poison?

_I guess that explains why it was so aggressive, or perhaps insane would be a better word. Whatever poison those villagers must have used, it sure isn't anything I know of. That monster… no, I guess I can't call you a monster anymore, for I'm somewhat like you as well now. Heh, it seems you'll get your revenge on the villagers after all, as I have my own bone to pick with them now. Rest in piece, whatever… whoever you were._

These morbid thought in his mind Ranma left the room, leaving its stench of decay behind. Searching for a moment, he found backpack lying on the ground. Thankfully it was still mostly intact, with only small tears in its fabric. Still, something was missing… As distasteful as he found it, Ranma took a hold of the corpse and turned it around, revealing his family blade lying in puddle of blood. He picked it and its sheath up and brought them to the pool of water, eager to rid them of the filth they were covered in.

Surprisingly, even though he cleaned them up as well as he could, their previous color did not return. Instead, the blade and sheath remained as crimson as the demonic blood they had been bathed in, as if they had drawn some essence of the blood inside themselves. However, it still seemed to just an ordinary weapon otherwise, only colored differently. Seeing this, Ranma just shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't the first or the strangest thing to have happened to him so far, in fact far from it. It was just another change on a long road made of them that had begun even before Xian il Shin'igami had given him the choice to become whatever he was becoming.

_I wonder what I'll be at the end of it, and how this fits in it all. No doubt my change has something to do with my strange state of mind, because I don't think I'd normally be calm about so drastic changes. Hmm, perhaps Cologne's scrolls have something relevant in them…_

This in mind Ranma pulled the robe tighter over his body and lifted the hood over his head. Throwing the backpack over his shoulder and attaching the blade on his hip he was ready to go. Moving out of the cave he noticed that it wasn't even morning yet, but he didn't really care. The most dangerous thing in the woods was dead, and he really needed a bath. All that blood and sweat was starting to smell badly to his nose, as sensitive it seemed to be now.

_If I remember right, there was a stream near the village. I can use that, because at this hour villagers aren't likely to notice me. After that, I have some reading to do._

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The sun was slowly rising, but that meant nothing to the cat eared sitting within shade of a tree. He had been reading scrolls and books found in Cologne's box for hours now, but with his weak Chinese he hadn't gained much of information so far. He figured that he was now a demon or half-demon of some sort and had tried to find something about them, but killing methods weren't exactly what he was looking for, as useful as they might be in the future.

From what other information there was, he now knew that was supposed to have something called youki inside him now. Some kind of demonic version of chi he would guess, and that half-demons were called hanyou or something like that. No much to go on by…

"Damn it, this really isn't helping me that much. I wish these things would happen with a manual or something, because this is starting to piss me off. I guess I'll have to do something about this, but what…"

Suddenly his ears picked a faintly familiar coming his way. It was that innkeeper that had lead him to that cave, and it seemed he wasn't alone. Still pissed of at him, he nonetheless remained hidden and decided to listen on to their conversation.

"…and I'm telling you, it's worth the risk. Either the thing's asleep after a good dinner or dead. Either way we have a chance to profit from this."

"Yeah right, like the last time with those arrows of yours? It only got worse after that!"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault those arrows didn't work like the witch said."

"You weren't the one that lost an eye in that mess, remember!?"

"Calm down! I admit that didn't go too well, but now things are different. If that guy has killed the beast, he surely isn't in too good condition. If so, we can take him down by surprise. And if not? We'll get the money from Saionji-sama for a job well done anyway. So don't worry.

"Yeah, yeah… Hope you're right."

All this was of course heard by Ranma who at this point was quite pissed of. Now, that emotion seemed to come far more naturally to him. He didn't know why, but he didn't really care that much either. It was time to take care of some business.

_Oh, I'm going to enjoy taking care of these two, but I guess I'll have to question one of them to find out who's this Saionji-sama of theirs. Better keep that in mind. Well, here goes nothing…_

Until now, Ranma had had no chance to use his new and improved body in battle, so what happened next was somewhat unexpected all to all three of them. As he leaped from behind a tree, he intended just to knock one of them senseless from behind. What happened however was somewhat different.

When his punch separated the other man's head from his shoulders along with a nice piece of spine, he realized that his changes apparently went much deeper than he had expected.

_What the fuck!? It wasn't supposed to do that! That isn't supposed be even possible. What kind of a boost did that heart give me? If want that other guy alive, I'll need to think this over._

By now the innkeeper had seen what had happened to his friend, and was dealing with the situation quite logically. Technically that would mean that he was running like forces of Hell itself were after him. When you think about that, he was pretty much right about that. That however didn't help him too much when Ranma appeared besides him grabbing him by his shoulder. Still unused to the overwhelming power he now possessed, that simple move was enough to shatter the shoulder in dozens of places and causing the man to collapse in the ground like a sack of wet flour.

"Now would you stay put for moment? I do have a question I'd like to ask from you. If you answer well enough, I just might let you go. However, if you don't answer… well, the things might become little painful for you, if you know what I mean." Ranma said to the man, all the while smiling peacefully at him.

"Wh-h-h-at do y-you want t-to k-know?" The man stuttered, clearly afraid of his life and possessing a spine of a jellyfish.

"Just tell me who and where is the man you call Saionji-sama?"

"I c-can't t-tell you. H-he'd k-kill me f-for s-sure!"

_Well now, it seems like he has a bit of spine in him at least. I doubt that it'll last though._

"I'm not asking, I'm demanding. And by the way… you can die only once, but suffering can go on and on." Ranma said as he stepped on the prone man's knee slightly and started to ad pressure.

Soon only things heard nearby were painful screams and frantic babble of the man questioned. It didn't take for him to find out all that there was to know, and in the end it was an easy decision finish him of while he was revealing some dirty secrets from his childhood. Only a surprised look in the man's eyes remained as his head fell next to the rest of the body.

"I told you that I might let you go, but there are some crimes which should not go unpunished. Be glad I gave you a quick death instead of the end you'd deserve." That said, Ranma cleaned the blade with rag and then threw the rag away. It was comforting in truly twisted way, that as much of a monster he now might, there still were those who as humans could be much worse than he could ever imagine being. This in mind, Ranma started to make his way towards the building described to him by the man he had just killed.

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It was still early in the morning when the dosing guards of Saionji's mansion lost their heads. There was no warning, no call for surrender. There was simply the act of execution and silent satisfaction. The door was cut of by its hinges, and those inside had little to no warning all when death came.

Those deemed guiltless enough could run away, but those with weapons were as good as dead, their bodies simply unaware of the fact at the moment. Eventually the building was empty of life, aside from one room that is. The door to Saionji's chamber was still unopened, and he still hadn't seen the man himself amongst his followers.

The door was apparently unlocked and with a great care Ranma pushed it open and peeked inside. That look might have become his last, were not for his new demonic senses. The sound of the moving blade and the air pressure warned him enough, and he dodged the blade barely by stepping back. After a moment the man himself appeared, clad only in his nightclothes and bearing his sword. As Ranma was still wearing his new robe with the hood hiding his face, it was logical that Saionji would ask for his identity… and so he did.

"Who are you stranger? An assassin? Who ever hired you for this job, I'm sure I can make you a better offer." Saionji said, looking at his opponent warily. Suddenly he moved like a viper and struck at Ranma who barely managed to block the strike.

"I'm no assassin for hire, and you couldn't buy with any sum. This is somewhat personal, aside from punishing you for all the suffering you've caused." _Shit, he's good. Probably better than I am by a long shot, with a sword at least. Only reason I'm still alive is because of my new abilities and luck._

"Personal you say? I don't recall ever meeting someone like you, and what this about some so-called crimes of mine. Where-ever did you hear or those?" Saionji asked, then dodged and made another lightning quick strike at his opponent.

"Oh, a little toady of yours told many things, after I motivated him suitably of course. Don't worry, he's not alive anymore… not that you'll need to worry about anything much longer." _Damn, that was close! I'll need to do something soon or else I'll be dead. If only I could control these new reflexes better…_

"Who was this informant of yours?" This time there was some heat Saionji's voice, making his anger noticeable as cool as he was acting. He clearly didn't appreciate traitors, even dead ones. That heat could be seen in his attacks as well. They were faster and stronger, but they were also much sloppier. Giving openings and making mistakes.

"I don't know what his name was. He was an innkeeper in here though. Does that help a bit?" _I don't know if this is for better or worse. Then again, any mistakes from this guy would be heaven sent. Now if only he'd give me an opening._

"Now I know who you are! You're the 'Demon' Ranma!" Saionji exclaimed in shock and halted his attack in mid-strike, removing only the hood from Ranma's head.

_There!_

Suddenly Ranma was right in front of the man, thus preventing either of them using their swords. "Yes, you got that right. However, thanks to your meddling I'm now truly the demon they say I am. I hope you appreciate irony of this," Ranma said archly, giving Saionji a look at his appearance.

As soon as he noticed the half moon symbol and the ears, Saionji took a step back with a look of fear upon his face. Then suddenly he tried to swing his blade in a desperate attempt to cut Ranma down. Seeing this, Ranma raised his free hand and launched a vacuum blade from his hand in point black range. Or he tried to anyway. However, instead of the expected blade of emptiness, a jagged blast of darkness shot forth from his hand, eviscerating his opponent while hurting slightly his own arm as well.

"What the hell was that?! Definitely not a vacuum blade, that's for sure. Damn, I have to find out what's going on with this body. Too bad you can't tell me what freaked you so much. I'd say you knew lot more about demons than you should have. I wonder…? Nah, I guess it doesn't matter anymore," Ranma said to himself, looking at the former human now decorating a room wall in several pieces.

Searching Saionji's room, Ranma found several interesting scrolls on shelves. Amongst them were many concerning demonology or such, too many to this to by just a coincident. However, whatever plans Saionji might have had, they were now laid to rest permanently. He took those scrolls that looked interesting and the money he was owned. He had no real need for the money earned by their way, he'd rather go hungry.

Finally, he noticed that there was a strange lever on the wall. For a while he simply wondered what it would do, but eventually his curiosity got better of him and he pulled it.

A rumbling sound could be heard from the main room, a sound of something heavy moving. Returning to the main room, he immediately saw what was different. In one corner there was now a hole in the ground. He could see a stairway leading two floors down, his eyes piercing through the darkness. Still curious, he went down there, but at the same time dreaded what he would possible find there. At the bottom he found a torch and lit it, and the vision that greeted him was just as bad as he had feared.

There were pens in there, but instead of animals there were humans held within them. There were men, women and even some children… some perhaps from this village, but most of them simply travelers.

Keeping his anger barely in check, Ranma shattered the locks with a single wipe of his hand. At least his strength would of use for something positive. However, even though the gates were open and the people free to go, none of them dared to move an inch. Then again, as Ranma all but covered in blood, his face showing the ears and markings, they could hardly be blamed for their fear. Even he realized that, as sad look come to his face. He turned around and left the cellar, confident that the people could now leave on their own now that the lock were gone and the route open.

Feeling satisfied but strangely sad at same time, Ranma left the house and the village. Those few villagers that he met fled as soon as they saw him, allowing him to leave easily enough. Eventually he reached the same stream he had bathed in previously. Feeling and smelling the blood on him, he cleaned himself once again before continuing on. Deciding to follow the stream for the time being, he traveled for hours until he saw something strange in the horizon.

There was apparently was a heated battle going on, but as far as he could tell, none of the participant were humans. They were all… demons?

TBC…

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Weird ideas 1

It was a place of shadows, a den for those who dwelled in darkness. Deep within that darkness, the goddess of assassins, Xian il Shin'igami, suddenly convulsed in agony when a headache size of metaphorical Mt. Everest, Mt. Fuji and Kilimanjaro thrown together struck at her. This sudden pain had also the unfortunate side-effect of making her swear like a sailor with a three day hangover, and accidentally caused the lord of the assassin's guild to fatally choke on the sugar coated pretzel, thus giving the man his just desserts.

Weird ideas 2

Deciding that some extra profanity wouldn't be amiss in a situation like this, she let loose a volley of acidic words in languages best left unknown to mortal ears. In fact, this exuberant fit of rage almost made her accidentally summon Tniskarri, the patron demon of sexual diseases from its lair in the seventh circle of hell to do her bidding.

Fortunately for the sanity of almost anyone related though, she managed to interrupt that errant summoning of hers. Thanks to that, she only managed to just give the said demon a case of incredible flatulence as it continued to bugger its unfortunate victims. Now the buggering would just happen in the tune of 'Hymn of the Satanic Empire' by Anton LaVey, played by numerous orifices best left unsaid.

Weird ideas 3

At first he didn't believe his eyes, as sharp as they now were, but eventually he had to accept that whatever there was, it was no hallucination. What he was seeing was a huge metallic half sphere rising from the ground like some gigantic nail!

Once he got next to it, the only thing he could say was, "What the…?"

AN: It's done, I'm too tired. Good night…

- Azrael's Wing

"Proper capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse."

Then a vampire appeared. Buffy did slay it. Slay it she did. Did it she slay. Because she could. Could she because. In her heart she knew that she was meant to neigh.. I mean slay.

Bring me (the prisoner/my servant/my lover), naked and bound!

Togo nin (i vandor/vuirenen/velethen), lanc a naud!


	5. Demonic Encounters of the Third Kind

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma½, The Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen (as minor as its part might be), Inu-Yasha... or whatever else might end up in this fic. That's simple enough, isn't it? …And if it isn't? Well, I could mention that I improved the bear traps with poison coating and upgraded the shotgun into a flame-thrower. Good for roasting those slippery buggers; lawyers…

Warnings: Blood, death and other such disturbing materials… for some at least.

The Knight of Shadow

Chapter 4 – Demonic encounters of the Third Kind

By: Azrael's Wing

Ranma was no stranger to trouble, and after running into too much of it for his liking he had certainly begun to expect the unexpected, but this sight that greeted him in the distance was a bit too much for even him to stomach. It was really that it was starting to feel like he was getting out of the frying pan and right into the good old meat grinder all the time.

Also, at this point another encounter with more than likely to be hostile demons was not something he was looking for, but even so, he just couldn't walk away from it. He had too much curiosity in him for his own good, and that forced him to take a closer look. Perhaps there really was something to the age-old saying about curiosity and the cat. It would certainly apply to him now, wouldn't it?

Even so, he figured that caution might be in order and thus collected that which now passed as his life force and then made it into the form of Umisenken cloak. That's what he hoped for anyway, remembering far too clearly his last attempt at using his Ki. Unfortunately, right now he really didn't have much of a choice.

For a moment he feared that it didn't work after all, but then he felt it happening… but it wasn't the same. Instead of simply disappearing from sight, it was as if he was melding into the surroundings. In essence he had become a chameleon, hiding in plain sight but unseen nonetheless.

It was quite curious but he didn't have time to wonder about it now, as there would be time for that later. Now however he started to move closer to the action, hoping that he could remain unseen by the demons. After sneaking a few more strides forward, he could see the whole grand melee in its gruesome glory, but at closer look it wasn't as chaotic as it had first seemed. It was as if there were two sides in this conflict, both quite eager to kill each other. The proof for this division of forces was surprisingly simple to see now, as chaotic as the battle was, and it made him even more curious of what was going on.

One side of the conflict seemed to consist of a relatively random group of beings with no real common characteristics amongst them; but then again it was the other side that fascinated him. Unlike the mixed up collection of forms their opponents had, this group was strikingly similar in appearance. Aside from slight physical differences, compared to the others that is, they wore clothes and armor of the same style, they had the same kind of pointed ears, and they simply gave off the kind of impression that they were kin to each other.

This showed up even more clearly in the fact that where as their enemies attacked then as individuals, they defended themselves as a group and supported each other. It was clearly this that had enabled them to fight evenly against their enemies so far, enemies that had significantly greater numbers on their side.

But even so, things weren't going well to them and they were clearly starting to become tired of fighting. As it battle went on and on in front of him, Ranma started to feel sympathy for them, for unlike their opponents they at least had honor and fought for each other. Regardless of that however, his musings might have gone on even longer had not one demon managed to creep behind the groups' leader.

At that moment things seemed to go in slow motion for him, and as the insect like demon prepared to strike he had a decision to make. To intervene or not… In the end his sympathy did win the struggle and he charged in to intercept the demon, his mind still doubtful of the logic and feasibility of this action.

_Damn, I hope this works better than the last time I dealt with demons, and they'd better appreciate this, whoever or whatever they are!_

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_We're so screwed…_

That was the one single thought that ran around in circles in Kouga's head right now. It wasn't because he lacked imagination for more, nor was it any lack of desire to curse. No, there simply wasn't enough time to curse out loud, or for that matter in his mind either. He was right now far too busy fighting for his and his pack's lives.

The day had begun well enough as they had traveled with a long time ally of theirs. The funeral had been held a year ago and the time of mourning had passed or so it seemed, as he had received an unexpected message requesting his presence in his domain. Even though it had been a long time since he had visited this area, he certainly hadn't expected an ambush. There was supposed to be peace these days, or at least as much peace as their kind could ever manage. It seemed that he had been greatly mistaken.

The ambush had been carefully laid, almost as if they had known of their coming, and their numbers were almost twice as great as theirs. The situation stank like week old carrion but he had little time to complain about it, there would be plenty of time for that later…if there was any later on for them.

Dodge. Slash. Dodge. Grab and slash. Dodge. The fight went on with no respite in sight and he could feel lethargy slowly seeping into his limbs. If he was starting to feel tired, in what kind of condition would the rest of the pack be in? If this were to go on they'd be goners soon and he had no way to stop that.

Suddenly he felt a presence behind his back and tried to turn to face it, but he knew it was too late. He could only look as the hooked arm of the demon flew at him, aimed straight at his heart. He already resigned himself to his fate but suddenly something stopped his attacker. It shuddered for a moment, and then a blood-covered hand came out of its chest holding it's still beating heart.

Everyone seemed to pause as the hand pulled back and the insect demon fell dead to the ground. For a moment he could only see a floating bloody form of a hand, but then the air seemed to shimmer and a figure appeared in front of him.

It was dressed in a white hooded robe with the hood pulled up to cover its wearers face. The only thing he could see of it was two glowing blue eyes, like pieces of glittering ice. Kouga opened his mouth to demand his identity, but he could only get as far as, "Who are…" before it answered him.

"A friend, I hope… Explanations can wait until we're safe! Defend yourself!" The male demon, at least he assumed so, yelled at him before charging at their opponents.

Whoever he was, he was right. He didn't have time to be puzzled. Perhaps now they would have a chance to survive, and right now he could only feel grateful, seeing the stranger split one of their enemies in two with his strangely glowing claws.

_Whoever or whatever he is, he's powerful all right. A friend eh? I sure as hell hope so, 'cause if my hunch is right we're going to need them…_

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When racing to defend the other demon, Ranma's attack had been in many ways instinctual. He had trusted his instincts, and the apparent result had been quite surprising; he had used the Neko-ken without going berserk. He did not know why. Perhaps it was due of his new feline nature, or perhaps simply because of the demonic life force he seemed to have now, but the results were nonetheless the same.

He was killing demons from left to right, and they could do nothing to stop him. A small part of him was horrified of the carnage he was making amongst his enemies, but it was only a small part. The rest of his conscious mind was divided between clinical observations and rising bloodlust. This was the first time he was in true battle since his transformation, as the village didn't really count as a major fight, and in truth it was giving him frightening insights into his new nature.

Not for the first time he wondered what he was truly becoming, and that small part of him wanted nothing but to get as far from this nightmare as possible. However, the rest of his mind resisted that impulse. It smacked to him of cowardice, and that was something he would never succumb to. Whatever else he was, he was still Ranma Saotome and he would never run away. It was still his mind and soul and he still had his honor, as tarnished as it might have been. He would never lose to this!

Now, while this battle had been raging within his sub-consciousness, a battle in the real world had been fought as well. Unlike the one within his mind, this had been relatively easy and since his intervention the situation had been turned upside down. The assailants couldn't deal with Ranma's attacks fast enough and were becoming demoralized, and whatever plan they might have had being thrown away in the due process.

In the end, there was nothing left but corpses and pieces of bodies scattered all around. At ground zero stood Ranma, his hands… no, claws dripping blood. For a brief moment it seemed as of he would continue to fight, regardless of his opponent, but then his tense shoulders relaxed and he simply turned around to face those that he had come to save.

Looking at them he could see that they were wary of him, which was understandable to an extent, but they weren't overtly hostile towards him. The one he had saved, their leader he guessed, was looking at him intently and was obviously trying to see beneath the hood. He had no reason to hide his identity from them, and perhaps it would ease their nervousness, so he pulled it down and showed them his face.

Their reactions were curious, especially that of their leader. There seemed to be something on his face that had shocked them, but he didn't know what. The silence remained between them for few more moments until their leader finally spoke to him.

"I thank you for your assistance, but I'm curious of your motives… and of your identity. I am Kouga, the leader of this pack. Who are you stranger?"

Though it was simply a question it came to him like a demand, and he had to contain himself so as not to bristle at the tone of voice. Even so, he had to answer, but what to say? He wanted answers as much as they did, but would they be willing to give them? In the end he decided that he didn't have much of a choice, but even so he formed his answer carefully.

"My name is Ranma, and as for my motives… Let's just say I'm in need of information and you seemed more inclined to give that than your enemies do. There are other things as well, but perhaps I could explain them later on. I don't think you want to stay here any longer than I do."

Kouga seemed to think about his vague answer a bit longer than was comfortable but finally he answered. Curiously enough, his answer was another question, "Before I answer that, tell me… does the name Naraku mean anything to you?" 

"Naraku? Who or what is that, some friend of yours?" 

The disgusted look on Kouga's face told Ranma enough. Who or what he was, this Naraku clearly wasn't a friend, but more likely he was the one behind all those dead demons lying around them. However, Kouga's answer wasn't very forthcoming with information. 

"Nothing… If you don't know, then it doesn't matter I suppose. Well, I guess you'd better come with us then. I'm sure there're plenty of things you'd like to tell us once we settle down, don't you agree?"

"Yeah, sure…" _Hmm, he doesn't trust me that much it seems. Can't blame him I guess, I wasn't exactly a fount of information for the guy. If only I knew what the connection is with these guys and my late night dinner. I sure as hell hope it wasn't any relative of theirs…_

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As others were making the camp, Kouga was deep in thought. It had taken decades, but eventually even his hair trigger temper had to cool down a bit, and in times like this he was truly glad of that. He dreaded to think how his old self would have handled a situation like this… Probably head and claws first into the trouble, and likely to his death as well.

This stranger, Ranma as he called himself, was a wild card. Though he was a Hanyou by appearance, his strength was far too great to be just that. His skills were also too much for someone of his apparent age, but even so he seemed strangely uncomfortable in his body. The facts just didn't add up. There was something strange going on, and he had better find out whom or what Ranma really was. He had a hunch, but it was to be true… it would change a lot in the balance of power between the demon factions…

And finally, there was his way of speech… and how it reminded him faintly of Kagome. The language seemed different coming from him; perhaps less than with her, but it was notable nonetheless. Perhaps they should check the bone-eaters well once again… even though it hasn't been functioning ever since Inu-Yasha and Kagome disappeared.

_Where are you Inu-Yasha, and whatever happened to you Kagome? Have you passed away like the rest of our mortal friends? If Naraku is really coming back after all these years, then I'm not sure we can make it without your help…_

_Bah, it doesn't matter how much I'd wish them here, or how much I wonder whether they're dead or alive. I have a responsibility here, and it's time to find out what our stranger really is._

It took him few moments to find Ranma standing in the shadows of a nearby tree, and as soon as he noticed him he was seen as well. Figuring the cat was out of bag he walked next to him and asked, "So, now that we're settled down, perhaps you could tell me your story?" 

He tried to make the question as reasonable as possible, but still make it sound more like a demand instead of a request… for that is what it really was. Now he would see how the stranger would react, and against all the odds he was hoping for the best.

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He had known that this was coming, but he still had no clue of what to do. To tell the truth, as much as was necessary at least, or to lie. The problem was, he still couldn't lie to save his life, which was probably at stake here, but the truth might not be that much healthier to him. It would all depend on how 'his' kind dealt with each other, and of that he had no clue at all. Well, I guess this is it… I'll have to say something, but what? Hmm, perhaps… 

"This might a strange question, but do you know what I am?" _I wonder how he will react to that. Better be ready in any case. _Ranma thought as he prepared for the worst.

"What you are? Why would…" _Why would he ask such a question. Shouldn't he know what he is, hanyou that is, already? It doesn't make sense, unless… There are some legends of humans becoming demons by other means, and of course there was Naraku, but I thought they were otherwise just that… legends._ "You are clearly a hanyou or half-youkai as they're also known, but why would you not know what you are. Unless… how long have you been… what you are now?"

Somewhat relieved by the simple curious nature of the question, Ranma answered still warily, "As far as I can tell a day and a half."

_A day or half! How is that possible? I don't think he's lying either, or if he is lying then he's a master at it._ "…All right, you'd better tell me what has happened to you, because this is starting to sound really strange."

_Now this really is it… Ok, here goes nothing!_

His decision made, Ranma told him almost everything related to this. The only thing he left out was how his patron deity fit into this. He told him that he was simply a ronin who had far too many troubles at home, which was the plain truth, and how he had traveled and finally made his way to the filthy little village. How he had taken the job he had been offered, without knowing it, and how something had ambushed him in the cave. He told of waking up on top of the demon and eating its heart and everything else that came after that. Finally Ranma finished his story and looked at Kouga, not knowing what kind of a reaction to expect from him…

Even though his face didn't show it, Kouga's mind was reeling after hearing the story. It would have been easy for someone to think that the whole thing was a lie, and he was sorely tempted to do so, but the facts remained. Ranma was here, he was a hanyou and he had the symbol of North upon his forehead. Now if only he'd know what to do…

"Damn, that's one strange story, and if I wouldn't see you in front of me right now I really wouldn't believe it. However, I have no other choice now, have I?"

"You believe me and don't call me a liar? Wow, there's a first time for everything I guess. Then again, I suppose you're wrong gender for that."

"What the…"

"Oh, never mind that. Let's just say that I had quite a few troubles at home, and leave it at that. Perhaps I'll tell you about it later on."

"chuckle I'll hold you to that you know. It sounds like an intriguing story to me. I wonder just how many of those you have…"

At this moment one pack member came by them with a mug of water… which unsurprisingly flew on Ranma when he tripped. The end result was just what might expect, shocked Kouga staring at 'her' with his eyes the size of dinner plates. Ranma just sighed and finished the conversation they had started, "Quite a few I'm afraid."

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That evening, after giving even more explanations and demonstrations to Kouga and the pack, he sat by the camp fire, basking in the warming glow of the fire. They had taken his curse in far better than most he had encountered before, apart from Tatewaki perhaps, and why not? Hah, he was a human become half demon through a dinner treat from hell. How shocking could a simple gender changing curse be?

On the other hand, some of the younger pack members had looked at his female form with a looks he had come to recognize. Strangely it didn't disturb him nearly as much anymore. Partly perhaps due the strange numbness in what he felt these days, but there was something else as well. Even before his change his thoughts had from time to time turned into directions he could have hardly imagined back in Nerima. Now, combined with his new detached attitude on most matters, he had started to think that some experimenting wouldn't be such a bad thing. The only thing missing was the opportunity for that, and perhaps he wouldn't have to wait long for that…

In the mean time he had other things to do. Now that he finally had some peace and quiet, he took time to examine the scrolls he had taken from that slaver. Some were useless, like inventories and balance books of his business, and were used to feed the fire next to him. The more arcane looking texts were put aside with Cologne's scrolls for later study, left for the time when he'd at last have enough time to really study the magic in them.

What finally was left of the pile after the sorting was a scroll that seemed to be Saionji's journal. Scrolling absently though it, Ranma at first figured he'd let it burn as well, but then something in the writing caught his eye. It was an entry dated few weeks ago, detailing a dream he had had.

…**and then it appeared before me, a vision of a beast and man that was neither and both. Its appearance wavered between that of a huge ape and handsome young man, but they both shared the same burning eyes that seemed to look straight into my soul and seek to devour it.**

"**Do you wish to have power Saionji, enough power to fulfill your every dream?" it asked, and I felt compelled to answer the question, feeling as if this was more than just a dream.**

"**Y-yes I do. I desire power to do whatever I please, whatever the consequences may be." I said, surprised at my own vehemence in the matter. It was as if I was compelled to tell what truly was in heart to this… thing.**

"**Very well then, I will tell you how to obtain it…" it said and gave me specific instructions to follow. Finally everything started to waver and I begun to wake up. Just before everything was gone a question came to my mind, for my own benefit were this to be real in some way, and I yelled it to my mysterious benefactor, "What should call you?"**

"**I am Naraku, remember that…" I heard just before I woke up, and I shivered as I remembered the malicious way the words had been said…**

Ranma's eyes skipped trough much of his irrelevant musings but were caught once more at another part of the journal…

**Once more none of the men I've sent to the cave have returned unscathed, and neither have they managed to do my bidding. Of the last group I sent in there, only half are still living and even they are grievously injured. None of my servants are willing to venture into the cave of Shinkoneko anymore, no matter what the prize or threat.**

**With every failure Naraku has become ever more annoyed with me, and I have begun to dread falling asleep and facing him. Thankfully, I still have one plan left. I have hired archers and given them poisoned arrows. Hopefully they can kill it, or at least weaken it enough to let someone else do it…**

In the final entry Ranma found reference to himself, and how the things had soured even further between Naraku and Saionji.

**This is my last chance, and of that I have no doubt. I have sent that ronin to his doom in hopes that his fame isn't just made of hot air. His skills are famous throughout the region, and I can only hope that he could at very least harm the demon so that I could finish it off finally.**

**I don't know why Naraku is so intent in seeking to kill it off, but I have no choice but to obey. Whatever thrall he has put upon me, I cannot work against it no matter how many mystics I have spoken with or how many arcane scrolls I managed to accumulate. If this doesn't work, I fear that the next time I go to sleep I will not wake up.**

**Even so, I can't help but to wonder what was it that Naraku was grumbling about when he made that threat? It was something about a council that mustn't meet… I think? Does it have anything to do with my troubles…?**

_Naraku? Hmm, I wonder has this anything to do with Kouga's troubles. Perhaps I should show this to him. "_Hey, Kouga! Come here for a moment!"

Hearing the yell Kouga walked to Ranma, curious of what their possible ally might have to say to him now. "What is it Ramna? What's the matter?" Kouga asked as Ranma gestured at the scroll on his lap.

"Well, you asked about someone or something called Naraku, right?"

"Yeah… What, did you remember something?" Kouga asked eagerly, as this might the first clue on what was going on he could get.

"Err, not exactly remember, as more like read…"

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"See this scroll? Remember when I told you about that bastard Saionji? Well, this is his diary, and it seems that he had some dealing with that acquaintance of yours… in his dreams at least. Maybe you could figure out what the hell is he writing about here…?" Ranma said, handing the scroll to the other demon.

"Hmm, interesting… Mind you if take this for a while to read on?"

"Nah, no problem. It's really nothing I need, but if it helps you, you can have it." Ranma said, yawning profusely. "And now, if you don't mind, I'll have some rest for a while. Damn I'm tired…"

And that said and put bluntly, Ranma collapsed next to his backpack and started to snore, happily oblivious of whatever might be happening around him.

"Well I'll be… Heh, that's the fastest I've seen anyone to fall asleep. Oh well, he did put up quite a show fighting those bastards earlier. Perhaps I could get some more info from tomorrow once he wakes up. I've got a feeling that he still has plenty of secrets to share…" Kouga muttered as he walked back to his spot around the campfire, Saionji's diary tightly grasped in his right hand. _But right now he had some reading to do…_

TBC…

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AN: Well, originally I thought to continue this chapter further, but since I've been writing vise dead as a door knob for a while, I figured that updating something was in order. There you go then… another chapter finally complete, and it sure didn't take time sarcasm directed to self. Hopefully future chapters won't to nearly as long to appear…


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